Olive plantations: Completed on 7,166 acres

ISLAMABAD:

Under a mega project, supervised and implemented by the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), olive plants would be cultivated across a total area of 50,000 acres by 2019.

Under the project, olive plantation has already been completed at an area of 7,166 acres in Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), and Balochistan while 700,000 plants have been scheduled to be planted over the next two months.

While chairing a meeting of the project on Friday, Acting Chairman Dr Azeem Khan said PARC is ready to purchase and install 11 oil mills of different capacity at suitable locations for quick processing of farmers’ produce.

Khan said the project has developed protocols of two olive varieties for propagation though tissue culture technology. Seven olive nurseries have been established so
far.  

Published in The Express Tribune, January 30^th,  2016.

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