Date palm valley project launched

Punjab Agriculture Department launches a project of ‘Date Palm Valley’ for South Punjab at a cost of Rs780 million

LAHORE: The Punjab Agriculture Department launched a project of ‘Date Palm Valley’ for South Punjab at a cost of Rs780 million. The Punjab Agriculture Department’s official told APP that the objective of the project was to transform nine districts of south Punjab into Date Palm Valley.

The country was earning a handsome foreign exchange annually by exporting dates, he said. He added that under the project free plants had been distributed in these districts.

To a question, he said that in Pakistan the annual date production had crossed 550,000 tons which helped to get 300 million dollars of forex annually. The agriculture department had started a five-year project at a cost of Rs780 million to distribute Ajwa, Barhee, Amber, Khulas and Midjaul varieties, he added.

Due to better management services and availability facility, the export price of date in the country had increased from 200 million dollars to 300 million dollars in one year, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 5^th, 2018.