Govt To Boost Olive Cultivation

News Desk

Islamabad: During the current spring tree plantation campaign, the government has set a goal of providing training to over 2,800 olive farmers and stakeholders by organising 47 training programmes in order to encourage and grow olive cultivation in potential locations around the country.

National Agriculture Research Center Olive Cultivation Program National Project Director Dr Hassan Tariq said that the training would familiarise farmers with global best practises for olive production. They would also learn about managing olive groves and adding value to the olives to increase farm income. They would also be taught the most recent marketing strategies, including labelling and branding.

Dr Hassan stated, “By increasing domestic production and reducing dependency on the imported good, which is straining foreign exchange reserves, the project seeks to secure the supply of nutritious, hygienic edible oil.”

To verify the safety and quality of locally produced goods, such as olive oil and other products with value-added components that would help to provide a proper rate of return for growers, a national olive reference lab was also formed.

Dr. Tariq announced that another regional lab would be established this year and that a national conference would be held the following month with participation from growers, professionals, academics, and businesspeople.

In the meantime, he announced that more than 1.2 million olive plants will be planted nationwide as part of the current spring tree planting campaign. This will support national efforts to increase domestic production of edible oil in order to decrease reliance on imported goods and save much-needed foreign currency.

In order to produce oil for local consumption, the country would plant olives on 8,900 acres, and a drive to graft wild olive trees into existing ones would be started in all four provinces, including Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

In order to increase the area under olive production, Project Director claimed that an olive plantation had already been completed on 40,400 acres and that the current spring plantation campaign will add another 8,900 acres to the olive plantation.

Dr. Hassan Tariq stated that the government would graft over 2 million wild olive trees in cooperation with other stakeholders and provincial governments, and that the untapped potential of the millions of acres of wild olive trees would be utilised to increase olive production.