Jordan Valley farmers grapple with wild boar menace amid virus crisis — union

AMMAN — Each year, hordes of wild boars cause damage to the lands bordering the Jordan River, and this year they are causing more damage due to the coronavirus pandemic, as farmers are unable to deal with them, according to Jordan Valley Farmers Union President Adnan Khaddam.

“The problem has always been there,” Khaddam told The Jordan Times on Monday over the phone, noting that the farmers request that the Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army license hunting weapons for farmers to deal with the problem.

He noted that the lands impacted are along the Jordan River, from the borders with Syria and all the way south to the Dead Sea.

Khaddam said that the problem with wild boars is that their reproduction rate is high and they spread in border areas, adding that “from citrus trees to field crops, wild boars leave nothing when they attack a farm”.

Farmers have always been instructed to fence off their farms, but they reported that while building the fences is costly and unaffordable for most of them, the wild boars are able to dig and make holes to reach the farms.

Khaddam said that “the only way to end the problem is hunting the boars down as other means are not as effective”.