Tunisian farmers claim they are in a losing struggle with illness and drought in an oasis known as the hottest area in Africa, which is causing many of them to abandon estates where they grow some of the best dates in the world.
In the past, the date palm orchards at Kebili oasis formed lush, rich islands in a desolate landscape. However, many of the trees are currently dying, and their naked, dry, and fruitless trunks extend into the sky.
According to farmers and environmental groups, a decade-long drought in southern Tunisia has made it increasingly difficult to irrigate the palm trees as costs have increased and power outages have increased.
“We haven’t seen rain since 2011. Underground water is boiling hot. When the electricity is cut off, the farmers can’t use the water for irrigation, and the waterwheels are broken,” said farmer Mouhamed Bouaziz. “Everything came at the same time.”
He serves as treasurer of the neighbourhood water association, which aids date growers in gaining access to underground aquifer irrigation.
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He claimed that the government was disregarding the plight of the farmers as it struggled to pay state salaries and finance wheat imports.
Kebili is one of a number of oases on the outskirts of the Sahara desert where a large portion of the dates that Tunisia sends to dozens of nations, primarily in Europe, are grown.
The greatest temperature ever recorded in Africa, over 55 degrees Celsius, was reported in Kebili in the 1930s, thus farmers are accustomed to tremendous heat.
However, they claim that the effects of climate change, such as the reduced rainfall and a date mite infestation attributed to the dry weather, are making life even more difficult.
“If we continue like this with drought and draining the water layer, in 20 or 30 years we will not find dates in Kebili,” said environmental activist Moez Hamed, peeling the stumps of desiccated palm fronds from a tree.
Other trees show signs of the infestation, with bunches of dates wrapped in the webbing spun by mites as they feed.
“It is a new pest that we have not seen before, and its cause is drought,” Bouaziz said.
As a result of their inability to continue using the irrigation his group offers, more than a third of farmers, according to Bouaziz, have stopped using it and all have shown interest in leaving the oases.
They were prepared to take the risky trip over the Mediterranean to seek a new life in Europe, just like many others who were hopeless about the future in their own nation.
“Farmers, especially the youth who will inherit these oases and preserve them, have migrated by sea,” Bouaziz said. “Those who survive survive, and those who die return in a large box.”
(With inputs from agencies)
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