Pakistan turns to olives to reduce oil import bill

1.5 million plants sown nationwide

LAHORE:

Over 1.5 million olive saplings were planted across the country as part of the second phase of the provincial olive cultivation project. The project aims to strengthen efforts to enhance the output of edible domestic oil and reducing reliance on importing the commodity, in order to save much-needed foreign exchange.

Talking to the media on Sunday, the project’s scientific officer Dr Waqas Cheema said that through this initiative, olives will be cultivated over 75,000 acres of land in all provinces and in the autonomous regions of AJ&K and Gilgit Baltistan. The federal government is committed to promoting olive cultivation and its value chain in Pakistan, he added.

It is worth mentioning here that the flagship "Promotion of Olive cultivation on commercial Scale in Pakistan, Phase-II" project has been implemented from 2021-22 and will continue until 2024.

"Despite shortages of funds, we have brought 11,000 acres under olive cultivation through this flagship initiative. Special focus is given to the grafting of the already present 5 million wild olives after a detailed survey and study and make it a fruitful economic asset for the farmers and country," he added.

Moreover, drip irrigation systems are also being installed along with olive plantation to save water in areas with low water deltas. Though olive cultivation has continued for the past decade in Pakistan, there remain certain missing links or spaces in the value chain. For addressing the missing links, a new project was conceptualised for technical assistance to the Pakistani olive sector.

The government also imparting training through 47 programmes to around 2,800 farmers and olive stakeholders. In this connection over 1.2 million olive plantation is underway in a campaign across the country to strengthen the national efforts to meet the local edible oil consumption.

In this regard, olive plantation would be carried out over 8,900 acres across the country, besides conducting a campaign on wild olive grafting across the four provinces including Gilgit Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir to attain oil for local consumption, said Dr. Hassan Tariq, National Project Director Olive Cultivation Programme.

Dr Cheema told the media that so far olive plantation, had been completed over 40,400 acres and about 8,900 acres of land would be cultivated during the current spring campaign. Meanwhile, the federal and provincial governments, in collaboration with other stakeholders, will graft over 2 million wild olive trees, he said. Wild olive trees standing over millions of acres have untapped potential.

Former Director of the Barani Agriculture Research Institute Azeem Tariq said the government was providing the best fruit processing and olive oil extraction units, along with storage, filling and testing equipment on matching grants.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 18^th, 2023.