Agri scientists praise KP govt for pursuing big olive cultivation plan

PESHAWAR: Agriculture Department Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is following an ambitious plan for promotion of olive cultivation and conversion of wild olive plants to not only improve food security rather also strengthen the national economy by saving foreign exchange to the tone of US$ 3.2 billion annually.

This was stated by agricultural scientists during Olive Gala at Tarnab Agricultural Research Institute here, the other day. On this occasion, entrepreneurs of olive products from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and other parts of the country established stalls of their products in the fair.

The experts said that our country meets 80% demand of palm oil and other agricultural products through import and spending a huge foreign exchange on it. The amount spent a huge amount of Rs.574 billion on the import of palm oil and other agricultural by-products.

The spending of only 50% of the said amount on promotion of olive cultivation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa could not only make Pakistan self-sufficient in edible oil and by-products rather could also earn billions of dollars through importing it to the neighboring countries. They said that various institutions are working towards the achievement of this goal and so far 60 varieties have been produced and provided to farmers.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has potential for production of world quality edible oil and other products.

On this occasion, Secretary Agriculture Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Dr Mohammad Israr said that agriculture has 20% share in Gross Domestic Production (GDP) and its 45% are directly dependent on this sector. He said that the cultivation of olive plants was started in KP from 1980 and its orchards have been established on 30 acres land.

He said that according to a survey conducted by Italian government, 1.7 million acres land in Pakistan is suitable for cultivation of olive plants and could also convert wild olive to fruit bearing plants. In this connection, he said the department has converted 4700000 wild plants and extracted oil from it while the private sector has also produced 40,000 litres oil from it.

He said that with the assistance of World Bank, Asian Development Bank and USAID, the government is working on Kurram Tangi and Gomal Zam Dams and other water conservation projects, whose completion would turn the southern region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa into a food basket.

He further said that since 1987, the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with the assistance of Italian government has initiated various for cultivation of fruits and vegetable including olive plants and oil extracting machines have also been installed in the province.

He said that various areas like Mansehra, Abbottabad, Battagram, Malakand, Mardan, Nowshera and Kohat are suitable for the cultivation of olive. Similarly, North Waziristan, Kurram and Orakzai of the newly merged districts of the erstwhile FATA are also suitable for it.

The Secretary Agriculture said that a state of the art olive plant farm has been established in Mardan wherein besides imparting training to farmers, they are also being provided free olive plants. Last year, 200 ton olive fruit was produced and 2000 litres of oil was extracted from them.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023