Landowners in Faifa city in Jizan Province have exhausted all options in their attempts to curb the spread of the cactus plant which they fear is in danger of engulfing their landscape and taking over their agricultural land rendering it useless. The fast-growing purple-colored cactus is of no benefit to humans, but provides sustenance for baboons and birds, in contrast to the shorter-thorned prickly pear which has an orangey-red color and can be eaten by humans and animals alike. The prickly pear has a single harvest season, does not grow and spread so rapidly, and is also used in making cleaning solutions, while the cactus can withstand long periods of drought and intense heat, and even once destroyed can sprout anew. The cactus quickly takes over areas of productive land, such as pasture land and forest areas, rendering grass land useless by depriving the grass of light and water, and causing severe damage to the livelihoods of cattle owners. A report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the Arab Organization for Development and Agriculture has recommended serious studies to tackle the epidemic and find ways to fight it biologically, a method which has seen success in a number of other countries. Recent problem Sheikh Jabran Bin Yahya, a local residernt of Faifa, says that the cactus was unknown to the area not so long ago. “This type of cactus was only found in desert areas of the Tihama plains,” Bin Yahya says, “but over the time it spread to the foot of the mountains and then the baboons and birds and other animals brought it up the mountains. If we don't tackle the problem soon, the cactus could sweep away all the pasture land and forested areas in the Faifa mountains.” Agricultural expert Ali Al-Haza' says the cactus requires constant measures to stop it taking over productive land areas, and that the government needs to work with authorities on the plant to stop it ruining what is also one of the most attractive regions for tourism in the Kingdom. “A study carried out in Australia in 1925 showed that some types of the cactus can spread at a rate of 250 acres in a single hour, and it covered over ten million hectares of land before the authorities started to tackle it. In India it has also been a national problem,” Al-Haza' says. “The cactus has also caused great problems in the US, most specifically Florida, South Africa, and New Zealand, especially when it has rendered agricultural areas useless.” Three ways have usually been used to tackle the problem. The first is by uprooting the plant with machinery and then drying it out by depriving it of water and burning it. The difficulty lies in getting the necessary equipment to the plants' location and removing it without leaving a single trace of it which would enable it to grow again. Another method is to use chemicals, but the pad of the cactus leaf has a wax-like surface to help hold in water, but which also protects it from chemicals. The other problem is that the cactus is often found among other plants that are of benefit to humans and the environment. The third and most successful means of tackling the problem has been through biological control, such as in Australia when they imported the Cactoblastis moth from Argentina, which in its caterpillar stage gnaws at the cactus plant. The rapid spread of prickly pear in eastern Australia in the 1920s was considered to be one of the botanical wonders of the world, and its virtual destruction in a mere six years by cactoblastis caterpillars is regarded as the world's most spectacular example of successful weed biological control. Not our responsibility Mashour Bin Qaasim Shimakhi, head of the municipality in Faifa, said following an inspection of the situation in the mountains of the region, “The removal of the cactus is the responsibility of other authorities. We only remove it from areas for which we have construction work planned.”
