Pakistan can grow all products of world

Islamabad: Dr Ghulam Muhammad Ali, Director-General, National Agriculture Centre, has said that whereas Europeans have to set up greenhouses to grow crops due to cold weather, Pakistan has versatility in weather and can grow all products of the world.

Dr Ali was addressing the participants of certificates distributing ceremony of 1-day Training Course on Olive Orchard Management held at API Hall, National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC) here Tuesday.

Dr Ali said that NARC was trying to multiply exotic varieties of olive and other trees here to distribute freely in the farmers to save foreign exchange. He thanked the Supreme Court, media and government for saving NARC land from land mafia. He said that due to research for new varieties, now there is enough productids on of wheat and sugar. Stores are full with wheat of the last four years and the new crop is about to enter the market and we don’t know what to do. He promised to work on saffron production in Pakistan.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr, Taj Naseeb Khan, National Olive Project Director, NARC, said that we are using marginalised areas of Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and northern Punjab to make Pakistan self-sufficient in olive oil production. Earlier in her keynote address, Syed Sana Aamir, Scientific Officer, NARC, said that olive is good for diabetes, blood pressure, depression, cancer, skin diseases and skin problems.

Ms Sana said that oil leaves are also used as a medicine. She said that Pakistan’s weather is closer to that of Spain so varieties grown in Spain can easily succeed in Pakistan. Ms Sana said that Sindh is very hot so not suitable for olive growing. She said that locally produced extra-virgin oil is totally pure while the imported counterpart has mixtures and is very costly. The plant can grow in different types of soil including marginalised lands. She said that it is drought-tolerant and can also survive in saline land. Its productive age is 200 years.

She said that olive has unsaturated fats so good for health as compared to mustard or other processed oils. She said that PARC has orchids, training facilities and extraction mills spread in the country from where you can freely extract oil from olive seeds. She said that we are conducting research on making value-added products like pickle, ‘murabba’, biscuits etc. from olive oil.

Ms Sana said that extracted ingredients have 12 per cent oil recover whereas machine efficiency is 40:60 ratio of oil and residue in Pakistan. She warned against using pomace oil and advised to go for only extra-virgin olive oil.

She said that on average, 8-10 year old plant gives 15 kg seeds (1.5 litre oil) with 8-12 per cent extraction giving you more than Rs200,000 per acre. She recommended annual pruning so that sunshine reaches to the maximum.

She said that to get desirable results, keep in mind the purpose of cultivation and give fertilisers and watering as per your preference. She recommended at least two varieties with one as pollinated one. She said that you can have square, rectangular, quincunx, hexagonal and contour planting. She said that weed management is very important for olive growth.

Give heavy watering now. For oil, harvest in August and September. She said that 6.5 to 7.3 pH is required for oil production. She said that in February-March, April-May and May-September periods, DAP or KNP can be used. Also apply boron. She said that farmyard manure can be used when it is mature and has no smell.

If emergency, herbicides can be used but go for manual weeding, she said. She warned against woolly aphid which sucks branch sap but participants appreciated it as a Manna (Taranjabeen) and something like candle candy. There are olive scales also which can be burnt, removed by chemical or neem-water. She also referred to Namatod which should be destroyed. The last disease she mentioned was Peacock Spot. She said that the best time for harvesting is when the pulp is purple from outside and green from inside. The participants were also given on-site training in planting, pruning and layering.