Italy to provide 20mln euros for olive cultivation

ISLAMABAD: The Italian government will provide 20 million euros to promote olive cultivation and production of olive oil in Pakistan, which would help reduce the reliance on the imported commodity to fulfill the domestic requirements.The federal government in collaboration with the provincial governments would start technical training and vocational education programme on olive farming to encourage olive culture across the potential areas of the country, said head of Barani Agriculture Research Institute (BARI) of Pakistan Agriculture Research Council, Dr Ahmad Tariq.

Talking to APP on Monday, he said BARI would provide technical support and policy guideline to provinces for exploiting their olive production potential by bringing the barren and semi-marginal land under production to enhance farm income of rural farming communities.

Besides, the fund would be spent on farmers training, particularly training of young olive farmers to encourage the young and educated youth for the development of olive culture to earn a reasonable livelihood by bringing the marginal land under crop production, he said.

Recently, USAID in collaboration with BARI had also provided 50 percent matching grant to the private sector olive farmers for the establishment of basic infrastructure, including the installation of mini crushing mills and other facilities for olive extraction and value-addition, he added.

Dr Tariq said that a high efficient olive extraction plant imported from Italy had also been installed at BARI to facilitate olive growers in extracting their produces. The plant has a capacity to extract around 500kg olive/hour and produce extra virgin olive oil for consumption, he added.

Besides, around eight tons of olive has been arrived in BARI for extraction, and around 24 to 25 tonnes of olive would be expected to extract during the current season, he added.

Meanwhile, Dr Tariq said that olive plant has been cultivated over 5,800 acres of land in Punjab, whereas around 200,000 to 300,000 plants have been cultivated every year to develop self-reliance in the production of edible oil, as well as saving billions of dollars being spent on the import of the commodity.

BARI is set to bring around 15 hectares land under olive cultivation by planting around two million plants, he said, adding that if proper attention was paid to olive cultivation, within next 10 years, the country would be able to produce sufficient quantity to fulfill the domestic requirements.