The Ministry of Agriculture has released an emergent notice, asking crops protection departments at all levels in northern part of China to spare no efforts in fighting against meadow moth plague.

Besides, the ministry sent out several expert teams to the most severely stricken areas, like Heilongjiang and Shanxi provinces, to help local governments to survey closely on the emergence and infestation of the pests and guide farmers to use pesticides.

Since May this year, meadow moth has been thriving in the region. So far, nearly 9 million hectares of crops have been plagued by the pest, including 4 million hectares in northeast

China's Heilongjiang Province, nearly 700,000 hectares in each of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Shanxi, Hebei and Jilin provinces, and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, and 300,000 hectares in each of Shaanxi and Liaoning provinces, according to the All-China Agricultural Technology Spreading Center.

Meadow moth is a major migratory pest for agricultural crops in northeastern, northern and northwestern regions of the country. The larva of the moth feeds mainly on leaves of crops, pupating on grass stems, which could cause extensive damage to agricultural crops like soybean, corn and sunflower, among other some 200 varieties of crops. In the past 50 years, there are three large breakouts of meadow moth in China.

This year's outbreak of the pest is earlier than usual and affecting larger areas, said Zhu Enlin, director in charge of pests control under the center.

"If the pest could not be put under control in an earlier stage, it might cause great damage to agriculture," said Zhu, adding that it's now time for meadow moth to lay eggs.

Zhu predicted that the areas infected by larva of meadow moth will reach 4 million hectares.

The local governments are all acting out. In Heilongjiang, agricultural experts have all been sent out to the fields to guide farms to use pesticides. The local government has allocated 38.4 million yuan and 1,218 tons of pesticides in the campaign. So far, meadow moth in 1.1 million ha of farmlands have been put under control.