Drop in Hasbani apple production

As Safir daily featured in its issue of today the plunging production of apple trees by 50-75 % during the past five years in the Hasbani River area. Farmers said the reasons for that drop varied, notably the use of adulterated and rotted pesticides sold at the local markets and which are used to control the various diseases and mites in apple orchards. This, in addition to the extreme cold and desert weather conditions and the latest wave of dust storms that hit the country. 

To shed more light on the crisis, the newspaper spoke with a number of apple growers in the region. Abu George, one farmer from the town of Kawkaba, described the season as very poor and complained that for the fifth consecutive year the harvest has been shrinking. “The yield hardly covers the costs of plowing, trimming, irrigation and pesticides,” he said. Meanwhile, agricultural cooperatives on the other hand, said the average produce of apples in the Hasbani River Basin is normally 22000 boxes, however, the present season barely yielded a quarter of that amount. Likewise, the President of the Agricultural Cooperative Association for Arid Farming and Seedlings, Nuhad Abu Hamdan, urged the government to take part of the responsibility in providing the proper extension and follow up assistance, especially to the long forsaken remote rural areas. (As Safir, October 28, 2015)