Campaign under way to eliminate olive fruit fly

AMMAN — A campaign is currently under way to eliminate the olive fruit fly, a pest which damages olives if left uncontrolled, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

“The ministry starts in June every year a campaign to combat the spread of olive fruit fly, which lays its eggs inside of the olive fruit and damages the harvest in later stages,” the ministry’s spokesperson, Nimer Haddadin, told The Jordan Times on Sunday.

Olive trees in Balqa Governorate’s Ain Al Basha District are currently being sprayed with pesticides to combat the spread of the pest, Haddadin said.

In addition to spraying pesticides, the ministry also offers to farmers traps for the olive fruit fly, according to the official, who said that the traps are used in areas where the pest has not spread on vast landscapes.

“If field surveys at the beginning of every season show potential infestation at a certain area, the ministry dispatches a team to spray the trees,” Haddadin said.

“Olive trees, which are planted on 8,000 dunums in Ain Al Basha, constitute a main income generator to local families; therefore, it is important to protect harvest from the pest, which spreads during this time of the year,” he said.

Around 20 million olive trees are planted in Jordan, occupying 130,000 hectares of the Kingdom’s total terrain, and constituting 71 per cent of the total area planted with fruit trees.

Official figures indicate that more than 80,000 families are directly involved in olive farming in Jordan and that olive production generates approximately $145 million in annual income for these families.

Olives are one of the most important crops in arid regions, as well as date palms, according to the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas.