IDLIB, Syria — With harvest season in full swing, farmers and officials have begun to calculate the damage done by a swarm of locusts that descended in April and May on large areas of opposition-controlled Idlib province, in northern Syria. From early May to late June, farmers usually harvest wheat, barley, lentils, chickpeas and cumin, among other crops, in addition to several types of vegetables on the province's plains and plateaus. Agriculture is the most vital economic activity in Idlib. Before the Syrian revolution, Idlib was a top olive oil producer, second only to Aleppo in the country.

Locusts appear every year in the area, but the ongoing civil war, weakness of the self-proclaimed Syrian Interim Government and lack of resources available to the Idlib Agricultural Directorate are the primary factors that have allowed the destructive spread of the agricultural pest this year. In the absence of effective measures, large tracts of agricultural land run the risk of desertification.

The locusts have settled in the areas of Shahshbo Mountain and Jabal al-Zawiya in the Idlib countryside, jeopardizing olive trees and pistachio nut trees, among others. Idlib farmers called on the Free Idlib Provincial Council to join the fight and swiftly secure insecticides to try to stanch the problem. 

Khaled al-Hassan, director of the Idlib Agricultural Directorate, told Al-Monitor that both the council and the directorate had responded to the farmers' appeals and formed committees in May composed of agricultural engineers who assessed the scale of the disaster firsthand and distributed pesticides. These limited pesticides available could in no way eliminate the scourge altogether. Hassan said the directorate estimates that 6,000 hectares of agricultural land have been affected by the swarm.