Insects endangering Saudi Arabia’s palm palms are the focus of a collaboration between NEOM and KAUST.
Saudi Arabian citizens and inhabitants are accustomed to severe heat waves and have developed adaptive skills throughout time. But the bugs come out as the temperature rises. And sometimes there’s more to the issue than just swatting it away.
Some of the main enemies of the country’s plant and fruit supplies include tephriditae fruit flies, like the olive and Mediterranean fruit flies, and insects like the red palm weevil.
Red palm weevil infestations cost the SR9.2 billion ($2.4 billion) date sector an average of SR1 billion in lost revenue each year in the form of date palms. This information comes from research conducted by Topian, NEOM’s food company.
Andrew Yip, head of innovation and ecosystem engagement at Topian, announced the creation of new technologies intended to target the red palm weevils that are endangering Saudi Arabia’s 36 million palm trees during the Saudi Agrifood Tech Alliance launch in early July in Riyadh.
Yip stated that Topian intends to market and expand optical fiber sensing technology for early-stage insect detection in hundreds of trees in less than an hour, in collaboration with AK-Sens, a start-up at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology.
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