Call for involving youth in raising olive nurseries

The government is taking solid steps to enhance olive cultivation in different areas of the country while over 12,000 hectares of areas have been covered under olive plantations.

Olive Researcher at Barani Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) Chakwal Dr Muhammad Ramazan Anser said that during the last nearly 20 years, federal and provincial governments executed different projects and olive cultivation was completed on approximately 12,000 hectares.

The olive plantation project was being run in all administrative units of the country and for the first time, Sindh was also included in the project, he added. However, a comprehensive approach to olive cultivation in the country was missing and to cater for this, the federal government approved the national programme on olive deepening for the plantation of olive plants on 75,000 acres in 2021. He said that two initiatives were also under consideration for olive cultivation including a project under the Southern Balochistan Development Plan and another project under TBTT (climate change) under the national programme on olive deepening, cultivation of olive plants on 75,000 acres, the merger of the ongoing project activities with the new initiative to avoid duplication.

“This proposed initiative under the national programme on olive deepening would comprise the left-over targets of the ongoing project, new proposed activities in southern Balochistan districts and pilot intervention for conversion of five million wild olive plants linked with climate change initiative,” he said adding that several clusters were identified for olive plantation based on the previous plantation, land availability and other climatic variants.

He said that during the project implementation, new clusters would also be identified and considered for project interventions. Efforts would be made to link the farmers with the private sector vendors for processing, value addition, marketing, and branding of olive products which would lead to the establishment of processing units having potential for employment generation in the respective areas, he said.

“The target of proposed olive plantation of 10.125 million plants on 75,000 acres at public and private land with no upper limit of plantation with 67:33 sharing basis would be achieved in Balochistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Sindh, AJK, GB and ICT. Efforts would also be made to bring five million wild olive trees into productive fruit-bearing trees through grafting under the 2021-24 programme in Balochistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Sindh and AJK.”

Olive is a drought-tolerant plant but needs supplementary irrigation through the high efficient system at critical phenological stages to obtain optimum fruit yield, he said adding that high efficient irrigation system not only saves the water but also contributes to better survival, quality and less frequency of diseases and insect pests.

A drip irrigation system, he said, would be provided for 5,000 acres. To a question. he said that a great potential exists in involving the youth in nursery raising, and marketing of olive products whereas gender could also be involved in the value addition process. Training and exposure visits to educated youth would be arranged in these two key areas of the olive business to facilitate the involvement of youth in agribusiness which would lead to the creation of more job opportunities, he added.

In this regard, several interventions were proposed including 10 matching grants (50% cost basis) to establish olive nursery infrastructure for the production of certified local olive nursery plants along with technical assistance. These nursery units would be linked with the already established known olive orchards, he added.

Special grants to establish olive fruit processing units for the production of value-added products along with technical assistance, for olive oil extraction units, for storage, filling and testing equipment and for harvesting and pruning kits would also be provided to the private sector, he said.

“Due emphasis has been given to the strengthening of capabilities of both private and public sectors for the nursery raising, processing, value addition, packaging labelling, branding, certification, and marketing etc. The private sector would also be encouraged for business in the entire value chain of olive culture. In this regard, 124 specialised pieces of training would be imparted to all stakeholders,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 13^th, 2022.