Saudi Gazette report MADINAH — Madinah has lost its once beautiful glitter, due to the transformation of large tracts of farms into residential lands, Al-Madinah newspaper reported. Once a cool fixture in Madinah, the palm fronds are now a diminishing factors in the city's landscape. The greenery and the beauty it lent to the city is missing. During the last three decades, many farmers had done away with their palm trees so that they could sell the farms as residential lands for high profits. Farms in Madinah have become confined to a number of districts on the outskirts. Farmers said that Madinah once had the largest number of palm trees in the world. They claim that there were around 23 million palm trees, producing about 1 million tons of dates a year. Abdullah Barzaiq, a resident, said that many districts have lost their palm tree farms as farmers burned the palms in the absence of monitoring by the concerned authorities. He described the situation as catastrophic, and claims that palm trees will one day disappear from Madinah. He said that a friend of his had a farm that had poor financial returns. He dispensed of some of the palms, and burned the rest, and transformed his farm into residential land, which has realized him big profits. He added that palm trees could be removed and replanted in other areas to minimize wastage by burning them. He suggested that farmers should be paid financial incentives to encourage farmers to care for their palms. Mustafa Al-Shareef, a resident, said that Madinah has lost one its most prominent landmarks, which has also affected the climate. He said that an alternative site outside of Madinah should be prepared for the farmers.
