Kasserine's prickly pear crop falls from 250,000 tonnes to 100,000

Mohamed Rochdi Bennani, president of the national association for the development of the prickly pear, told the state news agency TAP that the cochineal insect has cut this year's crop in the Zelfane basin from about 250,000 tonnes last season to about 100,000. The fruit is the main income for tens of thousands of families across Thala, Foussana and El Ayoun, and he warned there may be nothing at all to pick next season if the insect is not stopped. He blamed the agriculture ministry for putting the treatment and the uprooting of infected plants through ordinary public tenders instead of handling it as an emergency.

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