ISLAMABAD – The government is set to install three olive oil extractionmills and six mobile oil extraction units across the olive producing areasin the county to facilitate the olive farmers as well as getting maximumbenefits by the value addition of the local produces.
These extraction mills and mobile units would be installed during next cropseason with public private partnership, which aimed at promoting the olivecultivation and oil production on large scale commercial basis, saidProject Direct of Olive Development Programme in the National AgricultureCentre Dr Muhammad Tariq.
Talking to APP here on Wednesday, he said that promotion and development ofolive on large scale commercial basis would not only help in reducing thecountry’s reliance on imported oil to fulfill its domestic requirementslike palm and soyabean, but also provide super hygienic edible oil to localconsumers.
Besides, he said that development of olive on large scale commercial basiswould also help in saving the precious national foreign exchange reservesof over 3.7 billion used on the import of edible oil which were costing thecountry average $ 3.7 billion annually.
Dr Tariq said that about 600,000 acres of land were identified inBalochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Wanaand Pothar Region for olive cultivation during next season, adding thatolive plantation have so far been completed over 100,000 acres and plantedover 5 million live plants.
He said that olive plantation had witnessed encouraging trend in thecountry as average 500,000 to 600,000 olive plants were planted every year,adding that the olive was cultivated over 50,000 acres during last year.
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Out of the total cultivated crop, about 50 percent plants had reached tothe fruiting stage and every year output was witnessing encouragingincrease, adding that if the ratio continued in same spirit economicbenefits of Rs 25 billion would be injected in the national economy, headded.
He said that in order to ensure the maximum survival of the plants, dripirrigation system was also installed over 450 acres, besides work ondeveloping the local nurseries of certified plants were also in progress toproduce high yielding plants as according to the local ecologicalrequirements.
The project director said that about 18 training programmes were organizedand average 30-35 farmers were trained in each secession, besidesorganizing international olive conference to share the international bestpractices and expertise with local stakeholders.
