The Federal Government has agreed to raise new olive orchards on 30,000 acres of land in Khyber Pakthunkhwa over the next five years in order to make Pakistan self-sufficient in edible oil production.
According to Ahmed Syed, Project Director, Olive Trees Project in KP, work on the mega project has been accelerated in Khyber Pakthunkhwa, where new olive orchards on around 30,000 acres of land will be raised by 2026 under the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) aimed at increasing edible oil production.
He said that under the project, 4.02 million olive plants would be planted and four million wild olives would be grafted, and that the entire KP, especially Malakand Division, Peshawar Valley, merged areas of erstwhile FATA, and the right bank of the Indus, would be ideal for olive cultivation.
According to Ahmed Syed, Pakistan is blessed with a diverse range of soils, ecological zones, and climate conditions, with over 4.4 million hectares of land available for olive plantation, which, if properly exploited, could lead to the country being self-sufficient in edible oil. Since 1970, Pakistan has spent billions of rupees on edible oil imports such as soybean, palm oil, sunflowers, and other related commodities, and in 2017-18, it imported about 3,000 tons of olive oil worth Rs1.241 billion.
