Muscat – Infestation of date plantations with red palm weevil, a dreaded pest, is rising in Oman leading to an increase in economic losses caused to the agriculture sector.

In the first half of this year, red palm weevil infestation spread to 24 wilayats from 22 in H1 2021. The number of villages affected by the pest grew to 429, 47 more compared to the same period last year.

Last week, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources revealed results for the first half of 2022 of an integrated management programme to curb red palm weevil infestation in the sultanate.
The results showed that the pest infested 22,444 palm trees across Oman, an increase of 16.4 per cent over last year, when it was 19,278 trees.

Efforts of field teams and the ministry’s specialists led to treatment of 18,213 palm trees, or 81.2 per cent of the total affected palms in H1 2022. ‘This is 14.3 per cent more than H1 2021, when 15,937 palm trees were treated,’ the ministry stated.

In 2022, 4,231 infected date palms were felled, or 18.9 per cent of the total infected palms, compared to the removal of 3,341 palms in the same period of 2021, representing 17.3 per cent of the total infected palms.

Insect control field teams trapped 50,312 red palm weevil insects using 3,867 trapping devices in 2022, compared to 42,915 in 2021.

The ministry said economic losses to the date plantation sector were significant due to red palm weevil infestation this year. Infestation of 22,444 date palms led to a total loss of RO1.571mn, while treatment of 18,213 trees cost RO1.274mn, while removal of 4,231 infected palms cost the ministry RO296,170.
The report released last week indicated Sohar is the most infected wilayat with 73 villages affected, while Ibri suffered the most number of date palms infestations (5,187).

Since mid-1980s, the red palm weevil has been reported to cause serious damage to date palms in Oman and the Gulf region. The unique agroclimatic conditions prevailing in the Middle East and the nature of the crop, coupled with transportation of planting material, have led to the rapid spread of the pest in a short period of time.

The concealed pests bore through the soft tissues of date palms often leading to the death of the trees if timely curative measures are not adopted. However, treatment of infected date palms at an early stage of infection is often not possible as detection in early stages of infection is difficult.