Pakistan Enhancing Olive Production To Cut Import Bill, Generate Employment

While carefully pruning olive trees at his farm sprawling over an area of more than 30 acres in Pakistan's northwest district of Nowshera, Muhammad Abbas, a 40-year-old local olive grower, sees a promising future for his business

ISLAMABAD (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th Apr, 2021 ) :-- While carefully pruning olive trees at his farm sprawling over an area of more than 30 acres in Pakistan's northwest district of Nowshera, Muhammad Abbas, a 40-year-old local olive grower, sees a promising future for his business.

"Recently, there has been an increasing trend of olive cultivation in Pakistan considering its high demand, both domestically and internationally," Abbas told Xinhua, adding that on top of that, the incumbent government has been paying a special attention to enhance olive production in the country to boost green economy.

"At the moment, I have some 6,000 olive trees and each tree is giving me a yield of 20-25 kg on average, which is huge considering the nature of my land that is not suitable for the production of other crops," he added.

While expressing desire to plant more trees next year, Abbas said as the crop is more tolerant to adverse conditions like drought, and needs comparatively less investment, it is giving a high return than other crops.

The country has an ambitious target of planting 50 million olive trees in the coming years under the umbrella of the incumbent government's 10 Billion Tree Tsunami program for expansion and restoration of the fractured forests across the country and address climate change issues.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has encouraged local farmers to adopt the cultivation of olives to diversify and commercialize their crops.

"Large scale olive cultivation would prove to be one of the best future investments for the country that can help address the major challenges faced by Pakistan including food security, declining foreign exchange reserves, climate change, and job creation," Khan said recently while launching a plantation campaign of olive trees in Nowshera.

To reduce dependency on foreign edible oil and boost exports, the Pakistani government has recently taken exceptional measures by giving subsidies to local farmers, imparting technical trainings, and providing a large amount of free-of-cost olive saplings.

Pakistan has been spending billions of Dollars every year on the import of edible oil to meet the growing need of the population.

According to government officials, local production of edible oil is only 32 percent of the country's total requirement.

In a conversation with Xinhua, Muhammad Tariq, national project director for promotion of olive cultivation on commercial scale at the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council, said that the olive plantation project of the government will greatly help improve rural economy of Pakistan.

"It will not only cut the country's edible oil import bill, but also provide regular income to farmers holding small lands," Tariq said, adding that the project will create employment opportunities for locals, especially for youth and women by involving them in the value addition process of olives.

He said Pakistan has immense potential in cultivation of olives owing to its desirable topography and climate from north to south, and the government has been making sure to provide additional facilities to olive growers in this regard.

"New varieties of high value crops including olives are being introduced by agricultural scientists to enhance the high quality production. Technical assistance including orchard management, processing and nursery production are being imparted to the farmers," Tariq said.

The private sector is also being facilitated by the government in terms of packaging, branding and marketing to promote the export of local olive oil, he added.

The olive cultivation does not require much fertile land and can be grown on an ordinary land. If properly handled, the trees can bear fruits up to 100 years, making it the most profitable crop among others, Asad Rehman Gillani, secretary of the Agriculture Department in the country's east Punjab province, told Xinhua.

Presently, olives have been cultivated on over 27,000 hectares of land, and in the coming years, the olive saplings will be planted on over 70,000 hectares of land across the country under the 50 million olive trees project, Gilani said.

"Once fully implemented, the country which is spending more than 3 billion U.S. dollars on the import of edible oil every year, will produce surplus to earn valuable foreign exchange," he said.