Homs-Sana
The Homs Agriculture Directorate estimated the production of chestnut forest in Dahr al-Qusayr for the current season at 2.6 tons, a decrease of about 2 tons from last year.
The head of the forestry department in the Homs Agriculture Directorate, Eng. Amer Shaaban, told SANA that an investor was contracted to carry out the work of harvesting the crop, attributing the reasons for the decline in production to the exposure of between 30 and 60 percent of the chestnut trees to a fungal disease “chestnut blight,” which led to the injury of several people. Approximately 250 thousand trees out of the total number of chestnut trees amounting to 450 thousand trees, which led to a significant decrease in production.
Regarding the department's measures to reduce the disease, Shaaban said that the forestry elements specialized in education and development work at the forest site carried out during the last period cutting down of dry trees, in addition to pruning the affected branches and replacing them with carob trees, as they are suitable for the forest environment and are useful in securing nutrition and pasture for beehives in the future. .
He added, “During the last period, in cooperation with the Department of Biological Control and Prevention in the Directorate, experiments were carried out using fungicides of the type “Trichoderma and Carbendazine” on trees with the aim of eradicating the disease by identifying three fields of 2 dunums for each field, and implementing pesticide control and cutting trees to determine The best way to get rid of the disease, pointing out that during the new growth phase that begins in April, it is possible to ascertain the feasibility of the measures taken by the Directorate.
It is noteworthy that the area of the Dahr al-Qusayr forest, which is located west of Homs, is 1,500 hectares, of which about 60 percent is planted with chestnut trees.
Abdul Hamid Junaidy
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