Pic by: Baher Amin / The Peninsula
The Agricultural Research Department at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment is doing experiments on saplings of new types of palm trees which will help increase harvesting season of fresh dates from existing two months to up to four months in the country.
The idea behind the research project is to develop two new types of saplings of palm trees: The first which will yield fruits earlier and the second type will be ready for harvest in the late season.
“The experiment is part of a major project of the Ministry to increase the number of palm trees under which about 15,000 saplings of best varieties are being produced in the nurseries of the Ministry to be distributed to the citizens,” said Hamad Saket Al Shammari, Director of Agricultural Research Department at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment.
Speaking to The Peninsula at a recent event, Al Shammari said that the Department is developing different types of saplings of palm trees so the production will continue throughout the season.
“The research project aims at covering about four-month-long season. We are now doing new experiments to increase number of palm trees which could give fruits even after the traditional end of harvest season,” said Al Shammari.
He said that harvest season of fresh dates will not be restricted to only for two months for example. “Some palm trees give fruits early and others late. We are doing research on such kinds of saplings,” he added.
He said that Agricultural Research Department is playing a complimentary role of agricultural sector to provide food security in the country. “The responsibility of the Department is to bring about a solution for technical problems in cultivating palm trees,” he added.
He said that the Department distributed 7,000 saplings last year and plans are afoot to distribute over 14,000 saplings of the popular varieties of palm trees such as Khalas and Shishi by the beginning of December this year.
Ministry of Municipality and Environment is also running parallel another project to help market local dates so the farmers could get good profits for their produce in a bid to encourage them to increase the production.
Under the project, a 12-day local fresh dates festival is going on at Souq Waqif with the participation of 86 local farms from 4pm to 10pm.
So far, the festival sold out over 60 tonnes of fresh dates. The festival helped market over 15.5 tonnes of dates on Saturday attracting 5,800 visitors.
