The security department of the Transportation Ministry renewed last week a ban on flying crop dusting planes within three kilometers of the Gaza Strip border.

The ministry formulated a letter to the crop dusting companies saying the ban would be in effect indefinitely.

In March, the Transportation Ministry, concerned that Palestinians in the Gaza Strip would use shoulder-launched rockets to down crop dusting planes, issued a ban against flying the small aircrafts in the Gaza envelope. However, the ban was lifted several days later.

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The local farmers maintain that refraining from dusting could cost up to NIS 50 million in damages to the crops.

The potato farmers are exected to suffer the heaviest losses as a result of the ban. The potato industry has become the largest and most lucrative branch of agriculture in the western Negev in recent years.

"Without crop dusting, there will be no agriculture in the Gaza envelope," said
chairman of the Sha'ar Hanegev regional council Alon Shuster in response to news of the ban. "It is unacceptable that the Transportation Ministry makes it difficult for these communities to hold on under the current situation, while area farmers insist on utilizing every last meter of their fields," he said.