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Sunday, December 16, 2012
Promotion olive Cultivation for economic development in poverty alleviation
08:52
Cultivation, Economy, Farming, Future Agriculture Sector, Olive, Pakistan, Poverty
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Promotion olive Cultivation for economic
development in poverty alleviation
The plans to plant olive saplings in KP and the
rest of Pakistan can bear fruit
By Tahir Ali
With high global demand and rising prices in the international market
and Pakistan’s annual edible oil import bill exceeding $2bn, the rationale of
recent olive cultivation initiatives in the country cannot be overemphasized.
Olive demand globally is on the rise. Germans are using five times more and
British ten times more olive than they did in 1990. In America, olive demand is
growing by 6pc annually for two decades now. Olive prices in world market have
doubled to $3,400 a ton recently. Pakistan has over 0.8mn hectares of wasteland
suitable for olive cultivation. An official of the now defunct Pakistan Oil
Seeds Development Board (PODB) had told this writer that by covering the area
with olive plants, Pakistan can produce around 1.84mn tons of olive oil. This
would fetch over $6bn at the current rate of olive in world market.
The Pakistan agricultural research council (PARC) has begun
implementing the project “Promotion of olive cultivation for economic
development and poverty alleviation” whereby olive plants will be cultivated on
300 hectares in Balochistan, 100 hectares in KP, 300 hectares in federally
administered tribal areas and 100 hectares in the Pothohar region of Punjab. The
Rs382mn project to be completed in three years is being under the Pakistan
Italian debt-for-development swap agreement.
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The Punjab Agriculture and Meat Company also plans to develop 10
certified nurseries. These nurseries –being opened through private sector in
Attock, Rawalpindi, Chakwal, Jehlum and Khushab districts –would have a
catchment area of 27000 acres and would have an impact of $78mn. The potential
area suitable for olive cultivation is around 8mn acres in Punjab of which 0.4mn
is being targeted though this initiative. Total impact of this land, if covered,
would be $1.16bn.
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Similarly, in KP’s budget for 2012-13, a Rs100mn project –research
and development on European olive and maintenance of model olive farm Sangbhatti
Mardan –has been started and allocated Rs15mn this year. As the PODB stands
dissolved, Sangbhatti olive farm, one of its assets, has been handed over to the
directorate of agriculture research in KP. “The department will provide olive
plantlets, grafts and buds produced in the Sangbhatti farm to farmers. Though
the production of olive nursery is limited at present, it is nevertheless
sufficient for the time being,” says an official of KP agriculture ministry
wishing anonymity. “Despite our efforts, mass resort to olive plantation is
however unlikely in the immediate future,” the official adds.
Pakistan has been unable to increase its olive acreage and yield for
indifference by successive governments, lack of private sector’s interest, focus
on other cash crops, security situation in KP and tribal belt, too few olive
nurseries and marketing worries. It only has 1130 acres of land under productive
olive trees and the crop is yet to be inserted into the cropping system. The
question arises: will the new initiatives succeed?
While olive farmers usually grow olive haphazardly, the problem is
multiplied by non-availability of standard olive plants and restricted mobility
of local and foreign experts in the olive-rich but militancy-hit tribal belt, KP
and Balochistan. This explains why there has been of late a shift of focus to
other parts of the country. Olive acreage and yield could be increased by
providing quality seed, polythene rolls for wrapping round the buds/grafts to
save them from cold and moisture, modern training and marketing support to olive
farmers. Have similar interventions been planned?
Pakistan has over 0.8mn hectares suitable area for olive but as most
farmers on fertile lands prefer other crops, the potential area may be around
0.264mh. Even if a third of this area is brought under olive cultivation, around
25mn olive seedlings would be needed (@250 trees per hectare) over the next few
years. Has this been considered? Pakistan need to shift to tissue culture
technology, standardise its nursery production and open more germplasm units to
provide enough olive seeds, buds and grafts. Olive tree usually bears fruit
after 4-5 years. However, Sultan Ali Khan, a farmer from Swat, says his
community had grafted around 40000 wild olive trees but only 5000 of them have
been successful and have started bearing fruit after 7-8 years. Shafeeq Ahmad from Swari, Buner says an olive plant could bear
over 40-45kg of fruit if sufficient care, protection, pesticides and fertilisers
are provided to the plants.
“We planted 600 olive plants on a mountain ridge around ten years ago
but it is yet to bear plentiful fruit. Bearing of fruit was late and paltry
because the orchards could not be looked after well nor were provided sufficient
and timely doses of fertiliser and pesticides as the farmers were not given
guidance and help,” he tells TNS. Another problem is that very ambitious
projects are launched but are later forgotten. For example, there is no mention
of the projects of establishment of olive orchards in KP and that of research,
development and promotion of olive in KP which were allocated funds in the last
two budgets but not in this fiscal and have been left out incomplete. A report
on the Malakand olive development prepared by ISCOS, an international
organisation, had urged induction of more olive technicians, modern training for
them and increase in their salaries, introduction of a system of reward for
successful olive farmers, subsidized provision of olive plants, and interaction
between all the stakeholders in the olive production chain. The PODB had
converted quite a few wild olive plants into fruit bearing trees. That process
needs to be continued.
The planners also need to ensure olive production is developed on
commercial lines and its enterprises facilitated. Olives are grown by the
methods of budding and grafting of wild olive trees or planting of new trees.
However, farmers have found the method of grafting most successful. A research
showed that around 80-90pc olive trees grown through T-Grafting technique from
August to September were successful. The areas with an altitude between 400 and
1,700 meters, slope of 20°, rainfall between 250 mm and 1,000 mm and having a
warm, semi arid, winter rain climate are mostly suitable for olive plants. Olive
trees can endure low temperature of even -9° C but these can hardly tolerate it
at vegetative stage. It however needs a bit low temperatures in winter to be
able to produce good amount of inflorescences and flowers in spring. The common
diseases in olive plants are trunk decay, sooty mould and peacock spot, which
decay and dry up the tree. The olive trees need more nitrogenous fertilizer than
phosphorous and potash. The latter two fertilizers should be mixed in the soil
before planting of trees at the rate of 200 kg and 300 kg per hectare
respectively. Best time of nitrogen fertilizer is pre-flowering and
stone-hardening stage.
Reference by: "THE NEWS" (Dated: 07th Sept.
2012)
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