PESHAWAR
To cut edible oil import bill, the Khyber Pakthunkhwa government expedited work on an olive cultivation project to bring 15,000 hectares land under plantation in merged tribal districts.
Under the five years olive cultivation project, an official of KP agriculture department told APP that grafting in 1.5 million wild olives would be achieved with the help of agriculture experts and trained farmers.
To achieve the desired objectives, he said that 100 farmers would be trained in olives cultivation while olive purification units would be installed in olive producing areas.
The merged areas of KP were blessed with diverse ecological zones, fertile soil and suitable climate conditions and its potential was being taped to make Pakistan self-sufficient in edible oil.
The Suleiman mountains near Waziristan to the west bank of River Indus, Malakand division and merged areas were declared most suitable for olive cultivation where about 700,000 hectares of land was fit for plantation on commercial scale.
He said over 4.4 million hectares area in Pakistan including KP was fit for olive cultivation and its potential was being tapped through various projects.
First olive promotional project funded by the Italian Government launched on June 1, 2012 in Pakistan was handed over to Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), Islamabad after devolution of Pakistan Oil Development Board (PODB) on February 12, 2012 and completed on June 30, 2015.
To capitalize on the good work of the project, he said the Federal Government had launched “Promotion of Olive Trees Cultivation on Commercial Scale (POTCCS)” Project in 2015.
He said that eight certification laboratories would be established while a Pakistan olive company would be raised to ensure price stability.
