(Yicai Global) March 2 -- Monsoon winds may bring swarms of desert locusts, which have been plaguing Pakistan and India, to China in June or July, according to a Chinese government agency.

The pests could enter China via the Tibet Autonomous Region, southwestern Yunnan province, or the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region due to insufficient prevention technologies but the risk is relatively low, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration said in a statement today.

This year's increasing masses of the grasshopper species that can travel up to 150 kilometers per day have risked food security particularly in Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya. The swarms could increase by 500 times globally and the outbreak continue till June due to poor control, the statement added, citing the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

If desert locust and fall armyworm outbreaks coincide with each other, China's agricultural industry will face a disaster, an insider, who wished to remain anonymous, told Yicai Global. The moth species may be spreading in China now that it was detected in Yunnan province in January 2019, the person added.

Locusts usually damage 10 million hectares of Chinese grassland each year but desert locusts have never caused serious harm during the four times they have been detected in Yunnan and Tibet.

Editor: Xu Wei, Emmi Laine