80% of olive cultivation project completed

1,500 hectares will be planted under the Italy-funded programme.

ISLAMABAD: In the past two and a half years, almost 80% of work in specific areas has been completed on the olive cultivation project.

Pakistan Agriculture Research Council Member Coordination and Monitoring and National Project Director Olive Dr Muhammad Munir said plantation of 310,000 olive plants over an area of 1,260 hectares out of the total 1,500 hectares had been completed.

The Olive Promotional Project is funded by the government of Italy, aimed at promoting olive cultivation in the country that would not only help farmers boost their income but would also help reduce dependence on edible oil imports for which the country has been spending a considerable amount. Munir said under the project seven olive nurseries were established across the country, which included two in Balochistan, two in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, two in Punjab and one in Fata.

Under the project, olive mother blocks had also been established and managed in all provinces, which would be useful for promoting the sowing of olive plants, he said.

In the next five years, 50,000 acres of land would be brought under olive cultivation in the country, he added.

For the processing of olives to extract oil, small portable oil mills have also been established in provinces and one large mill at Ayub Research Institute, Tarnab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

One olive processing unit will be set up at Barani Agricultural Research Institute Chakwal besides other oil mills in the current year, he added. 

Published in The Express Tribune, March  26^th,  2015.

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