News Desk
ISLAMABAD: Government has decided to plant over 1.2 million olive trees during the current spring tree plantation campaign across the country.
The drive aims to strengthen national efforts to increase domestic edible oil production, reduce reliance on imported commodities, and save the shrinking foreign exchange reserves.
National Project Director Olive Cultivation Program Dr. Hassan Tariq said that the plantation would be carried out over 8,900 acres across the country.
In an interview with APP on Wednesday, Dr. Hassan Tariq said that the plantation had been completed over 40,400 acres, and around 8,900 acres of land would be used for the olive plantation during the current spring plantation campaign.
Federal government’s collaboration with stakeholders
He said that besides this drive, the federal government, collaborating with provincial governments and other stakeholders, would graft over two million wild olive trees.
He added that wild olive trees standing over millions of acres are an untapped potential, which would be used for olive production.
He said the government also intended to organize about forty-seven training programs to train 2,800 olive stakeholders and farmers on orchard management and value addition.
