Have you ever heard of cochineal? And I am not referring to the upscale restaurant in Marfa, Texas, but to the small, scale insect native to our area. This insect lives on nopal, prickly pear, Opuntia ...

In Morocco, where the first cases of cochineal were found in 2014, Opuntia is cultivated over a total of 160,000 hectares. In 2016, the Moroccan government issued an "emergency plan" to combat ...

KAIROUAN, Tunisia, July 23 (Reuters) - A tiny insect is ravaging Tunisia’s prickly pears, a critical source of revenue for the North African country's agriculture sector and economy. "Our biggest fear ...

Amor Nouira, a farmer in Tunisia's Chebika village, has lost hope of saving his prickly pear cacti, ravaged by the cochineal insect spreading across North Africa. The 50-year-old has seen his ...