Olive Valley teeming with nine million plants

[Night_Hawk]

Olive Valley teeming with nine million plants

LAHORE: Approximately nine million olive plants have already been planted under the Olive Valley Project started by the Punjab Department for Agriculture. The aim is to elevate Pakistan and make it one of the top 10 olive-producing countries in the world.

The agriculture department had chalked out a five-year plan to make the Potohar Region an Olive Valley. Under the project, the government would provide 200,000 free olive plants to selected farmers in Chakwal, Jhelum, Khushab and other districts.A factory is also functional at Barani Agriculture Research Institute in Chakwal for extraction of olive oil.

Local agriculturalist Air Marshal (retd) Muhammad Ashfaq, who owns a 50-acre olive plantation told Express News that an olive plant starts giving fruit in five years. “No landlord can wait this long since there are options available, “he added. “The landlord can cultivate vegetables and fruits in olive orchards. I cultivate watermelon and other fruits in my olive orchards to meet my daily expenses.” For the growth of olives in the province, the government has given a 70% subsidy on watering and cultivation, he said. The agriculturalist added that a 60% subsidy has also been given on the installation of drip irrigation systems.

The agriculture department is all set to purchase olives so that farmers can immediately sell their produce.Barani Agriculture Research Institute’s Deputy Director and agriculturalist Azeem Tariq said that they were not only providing olive seeds to farmers free of charge but were also assisting them in technical matters such as the best time to water plants. According to agricultural experts, the import bill would reduce with the establishment of the olive valley and they would also be able to export olives.

In addition, oil-producing components are also being encouraged in Punjab. The government is providing a heavy subsidy and farmers are being directed towards the cultivation of oil-producing components.Pakistan is an agricultural country, but processed oil worth Rs270 billion is imported. Therefore, in order to expand the growth of olives, it was decided in 2015 to convert Chakwal into a valley of groves.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 19th, 2018.

Source

 

[Night_Hawk]

Potohar valley: Plan to plant 2m olive trees


By APP
Published: August 7, 2018

PHOTO: FILE
ISLAMABAD: Punjab government is distributing about two million good quality and high yielding olive plants among farmers of Pothohar region, for plantation. A spokesperson of Punjab Agriculture department said it is a five-year government project which is aimed at the promotion of olive growth in this area, reported Radio Pakistan. He said the olive plants are being provided free of cost to growers in Chakwal, Jhelum, Attock, Rawalpindi, Mianwali and Khushab. He said under this project farmers are also being provided financial assistance up to seventy percent for sink tube wells while 60 percent financial support for installing drip irrigation system. The spokesperson said interested farmers can submit their application till 31st of this month to get free of cost plants.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 7th, 2018.

 

[NailaFirdous]

Excellent. Sounds exciting.

 

[arafay]

more of these valleys should be created so that import bill of palm oil can be reduced.

 

[kakamuna420]

This is very good news. Olive oil is healthy and should be made cheap in Pakistan. Left over of oil press could be used for fish or chicken farming. They could try to triple the area size and extend it to Sindh and Baluchistan

 

[angryoldman]

عمران خان کے کام لوگوں کی سمجھ میں چار پانچ سال بعد آئیں گے ۔ اس کو پتہ ہے کہ وہ کیا کر رہا ہے اور اس کے کیا فوائد ہیں ۔

 

[Night_Hawk]

Pakistan on long road to olive farming

Amid violence, tribesmen flock to Islamabad project office to take lessons on farming the oil-producing plants.


Bronwyn Curran
Muhammed Imran has been working for 50 years at the Agriculture Research Institute in Tarnab, Pakistan.
ISLAMABAD // In the dry hills of Pakistan's violence-racked frontier with Afghanistan, an olive branch is being extended from Italy to tribesmen under fire from both US drones and Taliban fighters. Rome is in the early throes of an ambitious project to convert Pakistan's barren wild olive groves into fruit-bearers, establish new olive plantations and give birth to a new industry in olive oil production. The troubled tribal hinterland is the poorest in Pakistan. It has little home-grown industry other than marble, fruit, pine nuts and crude weapons. Yet its climatic conditions and monsoon-free geography make it prime country for olive cultivation and a potential new edible oil industry. With 82 per cent illiteracy, high unemployment and repeated US missile attacks leaving its youth vulnerable to recruitment by avenging militants, the parched region is in dire need of new income sources. "Kick-starting the economy somehow is a must if you want to improve the situation anywhere and reduce strange temptations," said Raffaele del Cima, project officer for the Italian government's olive oil promotion scheme. "These are difficult areas. If we can initiate a process to generate job opportunities and improve conditions, then other benefits like education will come soon." Few embassies can claim to have an olive cultivation cell - other than Italy's mission in Islamabad. Its "promotion of production and marketing of olive oil in Pakistan" scheme is sponsored by the Italian foreign ministry's Istituto Agronomico per Oltremare (Institute of Agronomy for Overseas). After the country's agriculture ministry and Pakistan Oilseed Development Board sought Rome's help in expanding its edible oil industry to reduce its heavy import bill, Mr del Cima travelled to Pakistan in 2006 to launch a suitability assessment. Pakistan is covered in forests of wild olives, namely the olea feruginea and olea cuspidata species, typical to the northern Himalayan belt through India, Nepal and China. Up to 50 million wild olive trees grow here, but they bear no more than a seed-sized fruit and produce no oil. "The previous assumption was that where wild olives grow, others can grow and produce oil. Wrong. If we want good, sustainable early production, we must guarantee other elements, for example rainfall, slope and altitude for the chilling requirement," Mr del Cima said. While much of monsoon-prone Pakistan is unsuitable because of spring and late summer rains, the assessment's findings were nevertheless impressive: 880,000 hectares without irrigation are ripe for cultivation, mainly in the western borderlands of Baluchistan and the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP). Italy, the world's prime producer of olive oil, has 1.2 million hectares under cultivation. Tribesmen from Waziristan and nearby districts better known internationally as al Qa'eda territory have been streaming into the project office in Islamabad to soak up the lessons on farming the oil-producing species. "They adore these trees because they are in their book. The Quran mentions that olive oil can cure dozens of diseases," Mr del Cima said. "So for them it's huge, growing these trees and fruit and producing their oil. It's an entry point of incredible importance." Sixty per cent of the hotbed Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) is suitable for olive cultivation. Further south in Baluchistan, suffering from an insurgency over resource exploitation and inequitable wealth distribution, 22 per cent of land is suitable. A map produced by the scheme charts the collision of prime olive country with militant trouble spot. Streaks of red colour FATA districts, such as Bajaur, where Pakistan's army is mired in a military offensive against Taliban fighters; and North and South Waziristan, which are regular targets of deadly missile attacks by pilotless US drones from Afghanistan. The scheme works by demonstrating cultivation and harvest techniques on trial farms, and providing training in species selection, nursery management, orchard husbandry, oil analysis and the operation of oil extraction units. An oil extracting plant has been established just outside Peshawar in NWFP and is open to any olive producer. Ten experimental one-hectare farms are operating under the scheme in Baluchistan and NWFP. Already 1,700 two-year-old olive trees representing 18 species have been imported under the scheme. The trees are being planted at a ratio of 270 per hectare, with a projected annual production of four tonnes of olives per hectare at full growth. Omens of abundance lie in Malakand district in NWFP where locals in 2001 began grafting on to wild trees the branches of several Mediterranean fruit-bearing species: picoline, arbequina, barnea, cortina and frantoi. "Those trees have been producing olives abundantly since 2004," Mr del Cima said. Early signs of commercial viability are the purchase by a Karachi-based company of olives from Malakand at 60 rupees to 80 rupees a kilogram. Unrest, however, prevented any transport of Malakand olives this year. "It's difficult to get buyers there, and very difficult to hire tractors to transport olives to our processing unit. It's all made more difficult by the strife, militants and curfews." Nevertheless, confidence is high in creating Pakistani extra-virgin olive oil. If 25 million trees can be planted in the next 15 to 20 years, 72,000 tonnes of oil could be produced annually. "The will and opportunity is very strong. The potential is very big. The key lies in acceptance by growers. The area is there, the environment is there. We just have to see how different species adapt." The Pakistan Oilseed Development Board began a 16-hectare trial farm of 18,000 trees in Mardan, another NWFP district, before the Italians arrived. Two tonnes of olives from Mardan were put through the extraction plant last month, resulting in the first home-grown Pakistani olive oil. It is now being analysed. A bottle of cloudy amber-green oil sits in Mr del Cima's office. "Not bad," he declared, sniffing the bottle before tasting. "It's typical of warm areas. Sweetish, not very pungent or bitter. The nose and colour are fresh. The fennel's, which give products shelf-life, are poor. This product has a shelf-life of two to three months." Mr del Cima's focus now is to draft a map of charting oil properties and characteristics in each growing district. "I like to see olives on trees, but in the end I like to see what's in the bottle." [email protected]

 

[thinking]

Good.. expand more areas for Olive plants...Olive is good for health..A God gifted tree...we should encourage Olive farming giving them more cost free plants and facilities.Awareness for public Olive is more good for health than the Palm oil we used.

 

[PappuChikna]

270Rs billion oil imports.
Thats like $3 billion USD. So it will be a huge saving.

but how can we lure farmers if it takes 4 years for an olive farm to produce fruit?

 

[Aslan]

This good initiative.Pakistan should also identify regions where tea,coffee and palm oil trees(Elaeis guineensis ) can be grown.This will provide employment and reduce the import bill.

 

[islamabadi]

270 billion is spent on cooking oil imports.....and so far the PM Bhasha dam fund has collect 5 billion from nationwide and overseas Pakistani.....just mentioning here to put it in perspective. Instead of inviting donations....invite investment in cooking oil plants so that we transfer the 270 billion spent on cooking oil imports into building the bhasha and Kalabagh dams

 

[Night_Hawk]

Frequently Asked Questions
Are they green olives or black olives?
Do your trees make table olives or oil olives?
How long before I get fruit?
How do I process the fruit?
How much fruit can one tree bear?
Can they be grown in cold climates?
Is it true that olive trees need to be kept dry?
Can olive trees be grown in South Florida?

Are they green olives or black olives?

Green and black olives on the same branch



That's a matter of ripeness. All olives left on the tree will eventually ripen to black. Olives can be pickled at any stage of ripeness. "Green ripe olives" are picked at a certain stage of development, when the juice inside turns from clear to milky. Olives to be used for oil are usually left on the tree until at least some color change has occurred. "Black ripe olives" can be ripened on the tree or picked green and turned black in processing, as with "California Black Ripe Olives." See the link below at the question "How do I process the fruit?" for recipes for home processing of olives.

Do your trees make table olives or oil olives?

Wherever olives are grown, almost any cultivar of olive is used for both table fruit and oil. References to a particular cultivar's purpose is generalized and refers to the primary commercial purpose of the cultivar. The exception to the rule is a few cultivars that produce very little oil and so are generally used only as table fruit. A large percentage of the Egyptian cultivars fall into this category.


How long before I get fruit?



That is a function of cultivar. 'Arbequina' and 'Koroneiki' begin fruiting at an early age (about 3 years). Other cultivars do not make fruit until they are five to twelve years old. Most olive cultivars will not produce fruit without a pollinator tree of a different cultivar. There are also non-fruiting cultivars of olive. Olives grown from seed may never produce fruit and, if they do, will not likely have the same characteristics as the parent tree.

How do I process the fruit?


Olives soaking in brine





Olives are ripe enough for green pickling when the juice inside is cloudy instead of clear.



The following article from the University of California at Davis describes some of the many ways to process both green and black ripe olives at home:


Olives: Safe Methods for Home Pickling


How much fruit can one tree bear?

Arbequina fruit
Semi-dwarf varieties typically bear around 30 or 40 pounds of fruit per year at maturity. Larger cultivars such as 'Mission' can bear up to 100 pounds of fruit in a season, and the giant 'Chemlali' can produce nearly a ton of fruit in one year.

Can they be grown in cold climates?
Some people do grow olives in places where winters are very cold but they take extreme measures to protect their trees from low temperatures. Those who attempt to grow olives in pots to be brought indoors in winter often fail. Olive trees are very demanding of light and potted trees must be up-potted at least once each year or else treated as a large bonsai tree.

Is it true that olive trees need to be kept dry?
Absolutely not. Olive tree culture is much the same as for any tree. Though drought resistant after they are thoroughly established, olive trees need a lightly moist but not soggy soil. Under-watered trees will not grow to their potential and may not fruit. Florida's porous sand does not hold water and olive trees can stress quickly during drought conditions. Olive trees grown in containers will need frequent attention to avoid overly dry soil conditions.

 

[Night_Hawk]

Images of Portugal | Olive trees

 

[Night_Hawk]

Jaén, Spain: Land of the Olive Tree

 

[Night_Hawk]

Olive Trees

Looking down from a hot air balloon to the symmetrical patterns of the Andalucian olive groves

The contrast of the view from the ground of the actual olives
Olive trees

Driving through Andalucìa, it is easy to see that the most abundant crop throughout the Andalucìa and, in particular, Jaèn is the olive. In certain areas, tidy line after line of olive trees stretches for as far as the eye can see. In Jaèn more than 4.500 square kilometers is devoted to olive groves containing around 40 million olive trees. During an average year, these trees produce approximately 900.000 tonnes of olives, most of which are turned into some 200.000 tonnes of olive oil. In short, Andalucìa produces one-third of Spain's olive oil and a mighty 10% of that used in the entire world.

Olives are harvested from late November to January. Although there is some mechanization, much of the job is still done by the traditional method, which is to spread a cloth or net beneath the tree and then beat it vigorously with sticks. On small olive groves, this can involve the whole family and be quite a festive occasion. However, it is becoming more common that large olive groves are owned by just a few landowners.

Olive Trees in Andalucia.

Once harvested, olives are taken to mills where they are mashed into a pulp, which is then pressed and finally filtered. In recent years, up-to-date machinery and stainless steel vans have replaced the donkey driven presses squeezing the oil through esparto-grass mats, however, donkeys are still used in a few of the smaller olive groves which remain family owned.