Observer Report
Rawalpindi
Owing to the hectic efforts of the first Center of Excellence for Olive Research and Training established at Barani Agriculture Research Instituate, over 800 olive farms have been established in Potohar region.
According to BARI Director Muhammad Rafique Doggar, the institute has provided over 1.2 million olive saplings to the farmers while the new research and innovation facility was increasing olive production and employment opportunities in the region.
BARI had imported a state of the art machine from Italy to extract olive oil and the service was available for the growers free of cost, he said adding, the demand of olive oil is increasing day by day as it has great medicinal value.
He said CEFORT was supporting scientific and technical research and serving as a resource center in the region. BARI is making all out efforts to enhance olive cultivation considerably in Potohar region which was declared an ‘Olive Valley’. Trees of olive laden with fruits at BARI are the proof that Potohar can be turned into Olive Valley easily.
The olive saplings were provided free of cost to the eligible farmers of the region including Rawalpindi, Chakwal, Jhelum, Attock and Khurshab districts.
The programme was launched for promoting local production of olive and curtailing import bill of edible oil sector, he said and informed that the growers are offered subsidy in accordance with the set rules and procedure and they are bound to fully comply with the recommendations of the Provincial Agriculture Department.
