Ambassador Andreas Ferrarese sees huge potential for olives in Pakistan
Celina Ali
Islamabad: Italy’s Ambassador Andreas Ferrarese said this week that Pakistan has a huge potential for olives and Italy will continue to support the country in olive production.
The olive project, funded by the Italian government, is an initiative that aims to build a multi-professional olive and olive oil value chain in Pakistan to enhance production and improve food security through technical assistance and training of the stakeholders.
The governments of Pakistan and Italy are jointly executing the project through the International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM-Bari), Italy, the Italian Agency for international cooperation, Pakistan Oilseed Department and the NFSR at a total cost of €1.5 million.
Ambassador Andreas Ferrarese said Pakistan has a huge potential for olives. He also assured full support to Pakistan to make the Olive Culture initiative successful.
The OliveCulture initiative is a joint effort between the Pakistani government and Italian Cooperation aimed at promoting olive farming and cultivation in Pakistan.
As part of the project, experts from Italy were recently invited to Pakistan to share their knowledge with local farmers. These experts conducted training sessions in three provinces (KP, Punjab, and Balochistan) for over 800 stakeholders.
A recent training session took place at the Salahuddin Farm in Manki Sharif, Nowshera district, as part of a three-week program on Olive Good Agronomic Practices. The well-kept olive orchard serves as a model for the rest of Pakistan.
Farmers and prominent technicians from the Department of Agriculture Research and Extension from ARI Tarnab, Peshawar University of Agriculture Peshawar, Hazara University Manshera, and NTHRI Shinkiari were present at the session and appreciated it, emphasizing the importance and benefits of olive cultivation in Pakistan.
The session covered the shaping of young olive plants no older than four years, along with hands-on training in olive tree pruning techniques for balancing vegetation, production, nutrition, and irrigation practices.
