AMMAN — The terrible palm weevil infested the farm when Zeid Sinokrot and his family began a quest to grow date palms in Jericho, a Palestinian city in the West Bank, and they were met with an impossibly difficult challenge.
Sinokrot, an industrial engineer, was able to gain firsthand knowledge of a severe problem that is endangering the sustainability of palm farming throughout the world as a result of the project he did.
One of the most invasive agricultural pests in the palm industry, which is a major driver of the national economies of many nations in the area and around the world, including Jordan, is the red palm weevil.
The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) claims that this South Asian-born insect pest “has already infested or destroyed palms worth 483 million euros in Mediterranean countries alone.”
This weevil is causing harm to date palm output in the Near East and North Africa (NENA) region, affecting the environment, and endangering the lives of about 50 million farmers, according to the report.
Sinokrot stated that because the infection starts inside the tree, one must wait until the symptoms show on its exterior bark in order to notice it, and by that point “it’s too late to do anything.” Farmers abuse pesticides on all trees as a preventative step because of this.
According to Sinokrot, the palm weevil spends 80% of its life cycle concealed under the trunk of the tree and targets all varieties of palm trees, including coconut, date, and oil palms.
A single adult female can lay about 300 eggs after fertilisation in the fissures and crevices that she created inside the tree while looking for food, according to his explanation. When the eggs hatch, the larvae start eating on the tree’s inner tissues, tunnelling through the tree’s trunk and doing serious harm.
Sinokrot discovered that farmers in the Jordan Valley and other parts of the world were dependent on specialists who used stethoscopes to listen to the sounds inside trees in an effort to ascertain whether or not they were sick.
The weevil makes a sound that causes vibrations, and using stethoscopes to detect it requires an experienced ear that is able to recognise and distinguish the various sounds inside the tree and in its surrounding environment. Although this method can be unreliable and time-consuming, learning about it allowed me to reach two conclusions. It was the start of my quest for a solution, he said, according to The Jordan Times.
Sinokrot spent three years conducting research on a farm in the Jordan Valley with a group of experts in electronics, artificial intelligence, acoustics, and agriculture from all over the world.
He explained, “We intentionally introduced the palm weevil into our own date palms and started watching its life cycle, learning about how it lives, feeds, and reproduces.
Over a six-month period, the researchers recorded any sounds that might be heard on a farm, such as moving cars, water hoses, cows, tractors, and other insects, in order to develop an algorithm that is capable of recognising it. They then recorded the noises generated by its larvae as they dined.
A 3mm-thick needle is inserted into the trunk of the tree by Sinokrot’s startup Palmear, which then uses the sensor to listen to the tree for 50 seconds. The software app then receives the data obtained from the scan from the smartphone and uses it to determine whether or not the tree is contaminated.
Sinokrot claims that while the software is AI-based and now reaches a 90% detection accuracy, it is constantly becoming better.
In the Jordan Valley, Hatem Dabash has been cultivating date palms since 2008. He once had the red palm weevil on his land, but he didn’t find out until eight profitable trees had perished, costing him thousands of dinars.
The Jordan Times quoted him as saying that Palmear’s tool recently assisted him in learning that 67 of his farm’s trees are affected with this insect infestation.
Dabash noted that this early detection technique helped him to save the farm and, over the long run, reduce his use of pesticides by about 40%. “There were no visible signs of an infestation,” he stated.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, date palms make up 20% of the cultivated land in Jordan, with about 650,000 palm trees spanning an area of about 48,000 dunums.
The two most common types of palm trees grown in Jordan are Barhi and Medjool, according to Imad Al Awad, director of the Plant Protection and Phytosanitation Directorate at the Ministry of Agriculture.
According to him, their products are shipped to nations around the European Union, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Morocco, Turkey, the UK, France, and many others. He also mentioned that the Jordanian date industry generates over $140 million in annual sales.
One of the ministry’s key concerns, according to Awad, is protecting this industry and combating the red palm weevil, which seriously jeopardises its survival.
According to Awad, Plamear and the ministry inked an agreement last October under which Plamear would give the ministry five gadgets gratis and train its workers on how to use them.
The use of this technology, he said, aids in early detection.
Depending on its age and variety, a date palm might cost anywhere from JD500 to JD1,000 and only starts producing fruit after six years. Awad continued, “If a palm weevil infestation isn’t confined and treated, it can definitely wipe out a whole farm, resulting in enormous losses.
According to Sinokrot, the ministry also has access to a map on which all confirmed infestations are labelled, enabling it to identify the locations of palm weevil outbreaks in Jordan and take appropriate action.
Several nations interested in implementing Palmear’s technology on their palm farms are actively participating in trials conducted by the company.
