Farmers in Southern Israel, mainly in the Arava and the Negev regions, Israel's main cultivation areas for fresh produce slated for export during the winter season, have become extremely worried following the "invasion" of swarms of locust.
The pests worked their way across the Israeli border with Egypt on Friday, as far north as Jericho, on the northern shores of the Dead Sea, about 50 kilometres south-east of Jerusalem. The red locust originated in West Africa and traveled over Libya and Egypt.
By yesterday (Sunday) evening Israel's Ministry of Agriculture had not reported any serious damages to crops in the Arava and Negev regions. Planes have started spraying onion, capsicum and melon fields along the borders with Egypt and Jordan. Officials in the resort city of Eilat on the Red Sea reported that many of the plants and trees in the city were stripped of their foliage by the pests, noting that the locust preferred palm and olive trees, as well as grapes and grass. The region north of Eilat is one of Israel's main cultivation areas of date trees, in plantations stretching throughout the Arava all the way north to the Dead Sea area. A farmer in one of the settlements in the Arava said: "If the pests land on my fields, it's all over, destroying a whole year's work in a matter of minutes."
The plague of locust was the top headlines in all of Israel's papers and television news broadcasts. Agriculture Ministry officials said that they were concerned that warm weather can prompt the locusts to begin breeding, causing greater damages to crops. However, rain and cold weather that started today throughout the country, including in its southern regions, may alleviate the possible serious damages to crops.
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