QASSIM: Experts here say that the dangerous red palm weevil is spreading rapidly and threatens the livelihood of farmers and the industry. “It is threatening a national inheritance and one of the food and economic sectors of the country,” said an expert, calling for urgent intervention to contain the situation. Dr. Muhammad Al-Mulaiji, faculty member at Qassim University, described the situation as “critical” and said this should not be considered an isolated case. The pest will destroy palms if the ministry and farmers do not deal with it, he said. He added that during a field trip to one of the largest and well-known palm farms in the region, by a team of specialists from the university, “we found an unexpected infection rate. The situation is terrifying”, he said. Al-Mulaiji added that a few former university Agricultural Engineering students, led by some Ministry of Agriculture officials, have been working on identifying infected palms, the severity of infection, and have wrapped severely-infected trees in preparation for burning. “These Saudi engineers are devoted but their mission is difficult, given the fact that they do not have the basic means to carry out the task. They are using their hands and shovels,” he said. He asked how they were supposed to deal with the “deadly threat” to Qassim palms without machines that can lift infected palms and move them quickly to areas where they can be disposed of. Another drawback is the fact that there are less than 10 people expected to inspect hundreds of farms for the presence of the pest, he said. “The fact that has not been pointed out so far is that the pest is confirmed present at more than 20 palm farms in the region of Qassim, including Buraida, Onaiza and Alb'kairiya, and Allah knows where else,” he said. “Some people might blame the Ministry of Agriculture, which is wrong. The ministry cannot deal with it alone. Cooperation of farm owners, engineers and the ministry is needed to deal with the problem that is threatening our national wealth of date palms.” “Many farm owners rent out their farms and stay home, and those who rent them care only about the revenues they get from selling dates,” said Engineer Hussein Ali Abd Rabbo. “We've been fighting this pest in agricultural fields for the last seven years with modest and few [resources] – given the size of the problem.” “We haven't had tangible success in eliminating or at least reducing the rate of infection. This is due to the shortage in agricultural engineers, vehicles and equipment.” “We're not blaming the ministry alone, because the responsibility lies with everybody, including the ministry, farmers, farm owners, investors and society. We must fight to avoid a day when there is a low production of dates.”
