13 FOCUS ON ENVIRONMENT
SAVING THE KINGDOM’S CROPS New date palm weevil detection method developed at KAUST could turn the tide against the pest and support agricultural growth Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s leading producers of dates, with a 20% share of global production. In addition to being a major source of economic revenue, the fruit holds a distinct place in the Kingdom’s traditions and culture: a date palm features prominently on the country’s coat of arms. However, this iconic plant faces a growing threat from the red palm weevil, a 2- to 4-cm beetle originating from tropical areas in Asia. The pest has proved devastating to date palm crops in the Middle East, Africa and Europe. It lays eggs inside palms, and the larvae spend their entire four-month life cycle within the tree’s trunk, hollowing it out from the inside until the tree dies. In Saudi Arabia, weevil larvae cost the date palm industry an estimated $8.7 million in economic losses each year due to their management and eradication. In an effort to alleviate the negative impacts the pest is having on Saudi Arabia’s date industry, the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture (MEWA) has been working with KAUST to investigate new ways of detecting the red palm weevil threat at an early stage. In collaboration with Yousef Al-Fhaid at MEWA’s Date Palm Research Center, Boon Ooi, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at KAUST, led a team that has developed a method of using fiber optics as a cost-effective and non-invasive means to detect the very early munching sounds of young larvae.
infested. Lab-based tests on small trees demonstrated that the system reliably distinguished healthy trees from infested ones. The sensor can provide non-invasive, 24-hour, low-cost and simultaneous monitoring of around 1,000 palm trees with a 10-kilometer optic fiber, detecting larvae that are as young as 12 days old. The researchers’ promising findings – which were supported by the multiyear, interdepartmental KAUST Sensors Initiative – have already been published in the prestigious scientific journal Scientific Reports, a Nature
MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, WATER AND AGRICULTURE “The Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture – represented by the Date Palm Research Center in Al-Ahsa – and KAUST have cooperated to develop a device that uses optical fibers for the early detection of the red palm weevil inside palm trunks. This device will allow hundreds of trees to be monitored 24/7,
Their approach involves sending laser pulses from a sensing device into an optical fiber, which can be wrapped around the trunks of multiple trees over a vast area. Sound interacts with the light signal inside the fiber, changing its frequency. The fiber feeds the data back into the sensor that, with relative accuracy, separates weevil larvae sounds from background noises such as wind and birds, and then indicates which trees are healthy and which are
which will contribute to controlling this dangerous pest in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the world.” Dr. Yousef Al-Fhaid, Former Director-General of the Date Palm Research Center
