A scourge of small insects has swept across palm tree plantations in southern Libya in the last few years, destroying whole fields and dramatically reducing date production. “I did not imagine that one day I would burn my palm trees with my own hands,” says farmer Mohammed Karballo, owner of 12 hectares n Agar Atabah, 960 kilometers southwest of Tripoli, whose palm tress were destroyed by scale insects too small to be perceived by the human eye.

A scourge of small insects has swept across palm tree plantations in southern Libya in the last few years, destroying whole fields and dramatically reducing date production. “I did not imagine that one day I would burn my palm trees with my own hands,” says farmer Mohammed Karballo, owner of 12 hectares n Agar Atabah, 960 kilometers southwest of Tripoli, whose palm tress were destroyed by scale insects too small to be perceived by the human eye. The farmer  in his sixties says 270 out of his more than 300 palm trees were infected by the scale insect plague.

Karballo says it all began in 2010, but the damage at the time was limited. In 2016, however, scale insects spread and he had to burn 170 of his palms.  An agronomist told him the solution was cleaning and prevention rather than burning. “But that was too late,” says Karballo.

With 5,000 inhabitants, Agar Atabah is famous for its palm trees that produce several types of dates. Production has dropped significantly however in recent years from hundreds of tonnes to only a few, causing the majority of farmers to sustain big losses, Karballo told Correspondents.

Industry decimated

Imran Bawah, a researcher with the Arab Center for Desert Research (ACDCR), says the number of palm trees in Agar Atabah is somewhere between 100,000 and 150,000. According to the latest statistics, the number of infected trees has risen to a staggering 14,296. Each tree, says Bawah, produces up to 50 kilograms, which means that the region has already lost nearly 715 tonnes of dates, a significant loss for farmers. Karballo alone lost 80 per cent of his harvest and trees. The farmer says the scale insects only attacked low plants initially but that now they have infected most of the taller, 1o-15 metres, trees too.

Ali Deeb, an agronomist specializing in plant protection at the ACDR, says dangerous scale insects that affect palm trees were not previously known in the area. Deeb says that the insects arrived in the region through infected shoots brought from a nearby town. “We noticed its (he scale insect) presence in 2013 for the first time in Wadi Atabah,” he says.

“In late 2015, we also discovered it in the areas of Murzuq and Adleym, 750 kilometers southwest of Tripoli, which suggests it spreads fast. The insect kills palm trees. It infects all parts of a tree with the exception of the trunk, causing the tree to stop growing and eventually die. The dates become inedible,” adds Deeb.

Dates in quarantine

Deeb says the solution is to activate internal and external quarantine laws. Bringing palm seedlings from other areas and planting them, he says, should only be done after making sure each and every plant is free of pests and diseases. “All infected parts of a tree should be collected and burnt,” he added. Deeb recommends state intervention to tackle the issue because farmers cannot afford pesticides.

Abdulaziz Enchey, 55, another farmer in the region, concurs with Deeb. “We can only afford pesticides for up to ten trees but not for hundreds of infected trees, especially in light of skyrocketing pesticide prices.”

Deeb says the ACDR lobbied the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) regarding scale insects but the MoA said they did not have enough budget to tackle the issue. If the trend persists, he says, palm trees will be extinct in that region.

No budget against extinction

The head of Wadi Atabah municipality’s agricultural services, Mahdi Idriss, says his department is helpless since all it does is to report losses to competent authorities. Idriss referred more than one report to the MoA and its Prevention and Quarantine Office in Tripoli. As a response, the MoA sent a specialized team to take samples from infected trees. But, according to Idriss, the team returned to Tripoli without an apparent follow-up. “Everyone argues there is no budget,” he says.

Farmers like Karballo await help from the Libyan state to re-plant the trees they lost. The scourge of the scale insect, meanwhile, continues to spread.