QUETTA: Approximately 0.4 million olive trees had been planted by the Balochistan government across the province during the year aimed to fight water scarcity and for promotion of low-water consuming farming.
Out of such 0.4 million the BalochistanAgriculture Research Institute (BARI) had planted 221,000 olive saplings whereas the remaining were planted by BalochistanAgriculture Research and Development Center as part of its upcoming low water consuming project.
Talking to APP, Director General (BARI) Juma Khan said, “Plantation of olive tress will also provide farmers with an alternative crop which will be helpful ill help in bringing prosperity to the backward areas.” He added that the saplings of olive trees were imported from Italyand were being provided to farmers free of cost for their economic development.
The province has also been working to produce the saplings of olive trees in our own nurseries. For extraction of olive oil, plants were being established in various cities of the province.
He said that the ARI has started training programmes for farmers and landowners of the province about the modern farming methods.
He said, “Cultivation of such 400,000 olive plants was done at 4,000 acres to resist climate change issue besides introducing a good source of income for the poor farmers of the province.
He said it was priority of the government to make barren land cultivable for the promotion of livestock and agriculture sector of the province.
He said such new initiative would help generate revenue for the province, besides bringing large areas of barren land under cultivation.
Appreciating the plant distribution process, local farmers said such initiatives were imperative for prosperity of the province, besides ensuring involvement of lower middleclass in the country development.
They praised the ARI for ensuring transparency in plants distribution process in the province.
