Balochistan to plant 400k olive trees
PHOTO: AFP
Approximately 0.4 million olive trees would be planted in Balochistan during the current year to promote low water-consuming farming, aimed to fight water scarcity in the province.
According to sources, the Balochistan Agriculture Research Institute (BARI) would plant 221,000 olive saplings while the remaining would be planted by Balochistan Agriculture Research and Development Centre as part of its upcoming low water consuming project.
Talking to APP, Director General (DG) BARI, Juma Khan Tareen said, “it will also provide farmers an alternative crop which will help bring prosperity to the backward areas.”
He added that the saplings of olive trees were being imported from Spain and would be provided to farmers free of charge for their economic development.
“They are also working to produce saplings of olive trees in its own nurseries,” he said. “For extraction of olive oil, plants were being established in various cities of the province.”
DG Tareen also said that BARI has begun training programmes for farmers and landowners of the province on modern farming methods. “Cultivation of 400,000 olive plants will be done on 4,000 acres to resist climate change issue besides introducing a good source of income for poor farmers.”
He maintained that it was BARI’s top priority to make barren land cultivable for promotion of livestock and agriculture sector in the province. “This new initiative would help generate revenue for the province, besides bringing large areas of barren land under cultivation.”
Published in The Express Tribune, September 14th, 2020.