The Director of Prevention at the Ministry of Agriculture, Iyad Muhammad, revealed that a reward of 100 Syrian pounds has been allocated to anyone who participates in collecting and combating the harmful Capnodes.
Muhammad explained to the local radio “Sham FM” that “Capnodes” infects pistachio trees, as the percentage of infected trees reached 10% of the areas planted with pistachios, which extends to 60,000 hectares, pointing out that this method is considered one of the best methods of control.
The Capnodes is a harmful insect in its larval stage in particular, as it digs the root zone and prevents the imperfect sap from reaching the leaves, which leads to the death of adult trees within two years, and young plants in a year, and it was formed as a result of a large percentage of cultivated areas out of control during the war years only. It can be prevented by continuous watering.
Regarding how to combat the insect, Muhammad indicated that the lazy insect is present during the early morning hours on the trees, where farmers can collect it and put it in bags and then deliver it to the directorates to do the records of the destruction, adding that there are committees that organize collection work to calculate the value of the reward, which before the war was 2 and a half pounds. Now 100 liras, and there is also a program to combat wasps, the reward of which will be 2000 liras per nest.
The Director of Prevention in the Ministry of Agriculture indicated that Syria ranks fifth in the production of pistachios in the world, and it is considered one of the best types, and it is highly desirable, as Syria’s production came from about 10 million trees last year, Hama occupies the first place with 23 thousand tons superior to Aleppo.
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