Destructive pest spoils lucrative date industry

More than nine million Iraqi date palms have been affected by a pest that has caused massive crop losses for hundreds of local date farmers, say Ministry of Agriculture officials. “The disease has been spreading in many provinces…causing huge losses to the national economy,” said Hameed al-Sheik al-Radi, director of the agriculture ministry’s department for the protection of plants. The pest, known as “dubas”, or the “palm leafhopper”, lays its eggs inside of date fruits, causing them to spoil and drop early. If the infection goes unchecked, it has the potential to destroy up to half of the harvests – and the livelihoods – of the farmers who grow them. Radi explained that local date palms – long subject to harsh circumstances – are particularly susceptible to pests. “Wars and government negligence have resulted in date palms’ generally weak dispositions, which have made them more vulnerable to disease,” Radi said. “Today, over 90 percent of the country’s date palms are infected by some kind of insect or fungus.” The local date-farming industry has traditionally been considered a national treasure of both symbolic and economic significance. At one time, date exports accounted for 30 percent of global supply. In 1980s, the country was amply endowed with some 30 million date palms and boasted an annual production of nearly 600,000 tons, two thirds of which were exported to European and Asian markets. Dates continue to represent the country’s largest non-oil export. During the regime of former President Saddam Hussein, the number of date palms is said to have declined by half, following years of neglect and underinvestment. The former regime’s policy of felling date palms in Basra in order to punish its Shi’ite Arab opponents and the Iraq-Iran war, which ended in 1988, reduced the date palm population even further. Now, farmers complain bitterly of the ongoing deterioration of their harvests. “Production hasn’t been good at all in the past three years,” said Hakeem Muhammad, a date farmer in the Jadiriyah district, south of Baghdad. “All the trees in my farm are infected, and I can’t produce enough to sell in the markets.” In an effort to prevent further spoilage, a US $1 million aerial spraying programme funded by the Ministry of Agriculture began on 1 May, targeting the four south-easternmost provinces of Basrah, Al Muthanna, Dhi Qar and Maysaan. “We rented nine crop-dusting helicopters to spray areas of around 750,000 square kilometres that are severely infected,” said Radi, “as well as manual treatments for an area of less than 25,000 square kilometres with minor infections.” Farmers, meanwhile, have been warned to take safety measures during the campaign, set to continue until 20 May. “The government warned us to take precautions by covering our food and water stores,” said Ganem Abdullah, a date farmer from Diyalah, 65km east of the capital.