Protect your date palm plantation from devastating diseases & pests. Learn effective control strategies.
Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is a major fruit crop in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The crop’s tolerance to high temperature, drought, and salinity makes it suitable to the harsh environment in the MENA region. Date palm is currently cultivated in nearly 30 countries on the Asian, African, American, and Australasian continents. There are over 100 million date palms worldwide, of which 60% are in the MENA region. Dates provide rural livelihood security to millions of farmers in the arid regions of the world and are of significance to human nutrition, due to their high content of essential nutrients. The world production of dates has increased from 1.8 million tons in 1962 to over 8.0 million tons at present.
Climate change due to global warming has impacted the flora and fauna worldwide, especially in arid zones. This has significantly changed the pest and disease complex of date palm, calling for the implementation of climate resilient pest and disease management programs. The most important reason for this low productivity is date palm diseases.
Date palm diseases were unknown for several decades to reduce yield and quality of fruits before discovering that their etiological agents as insects, fungus or phytoplasmas. During the last three decades much progress has been made in the fields of plant pathology, molecular biology, genomics, biotechnology, and immunology, which significantly accelerated and facilitated research on these pathogens.
Date palm plantations in both commercial and dooryard plantings can exhibit a host of symptoms reflecting various disorders. It is estimated that over 50% of the date palm plantations are young, below the age of 20 years offering an ideal situation for pests like red palm weevil, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus Olivier to establish and proliferate. On the other hand, in older plantations, where irrigation may be scarce the long horn beetle, Jebusea hammerschmidti Reich is emerging as a challenge. Bayoud is considered the most serious disease of date palm, especially in Morocco and Algeria, where it has destroyed millions of date palms. Another major disease that is fast emerging is Al Wijam (phytoplasma) in the Gulf region.
Integrated Pest Management, which has an ecological base, focuses on the use of a wide range of pest control options instead of relying only on the use of pesticides. Developing or implementing an IPM program, new technologies such as remote sensing control and early discovering or detection of date palm infection for a crop involves a systematic application of knowledge about the crop and the pests involved. This guide on date palm control strategies are a comprehensive overview on the biology (life cycle, damage, losses, geographical distribution, and host range) and management of major pests and diseases of date palms, besides addressing issues related to farming practices in relation to pest and disease management.
