Pakistani farmers are calling this olive green revolution and the best profits are being made from it. According to experts, the olive tree bears fruit for a thousand years.
The olive fruit is a gift from God in view of its nutritional and medicinal value.
In a private show, Dr. Fayyaz Alam, General Secretary, Dua Foundation, gave a special talk and shared important and basic information about olive cultivation in Pakistan.
Dr. Fayyaz Alam said that there are 85 million wild olive trees in the country at present.
He said that the wild olive tree is called Khunna which is called Khun in the majority areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Khun in the southern districts of Punjab and Kashmir and Hath or Hath in Balochistan.
He said that it is found in large numbers in all the four provinces of the country, Pakistan-administered Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.
It is abundant in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, each with a different local name. The root and wood of the wild olive are very strong and it is in perfect harmony with the ecosystem of Pakistan.
Olive and its importance
Pakistan’s natural oil production is far below the country’s needs. This shortfall has to be offset by the need to import oil at the expense of foreign exchange. Olive oil imports have multiplied over the past few years.
Olive is an oily tree that can be successfully cultivated in different parts of our country and can significantly increase the country’s production without affecting the production of other crops.
In Pakistan’s mountainous and semi-mountainous regions, including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, FATA, Balochistan and the Wadisun and Pothohari districts of Punjab, there is a bright prospect of commercial cultivation of olives. Preliminary research efforts have yielded encouraging results.
