Italy has assured Pakistan technology transfer, expertise and joint mechanism for cultivation of olive plants. This was stated by Federal Minister for Food and Agriculture, Nazar Muhammad Gondal during a meeting with an Italian delegation led by Vicintzo Parati, Italian Ambassador to Pakistan on Wednesday. The minister said that olive oil production would be greatly enhanced with the assistance of Italy.
Gondal stated that about 8,00,000 hectares in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan suitable for olive cultivation has already been identified, adding Pakistan is moving in the right direction. The minister said "we are grateful to Italy for providing assistance in promotion, production and commercialisation of olive and its by-products in Pakistan".
Vicintzo Parati said that Italy is willing to help Pakistan achieve self-sufficiency in the oilseed production. He added that establishing an Olive research centre and co-ordination with the academic and research centers would be enhanced to promote olive cultivation and commercialisation in Pakistan. He said that the presence of the Director General of the Instituto Agronomic per I'Oltremare (IAO), Giovanni Totino shows how serious Italy is in the promotion of oilseed production in Pakistan.
Italian government will launch a regional project for the promotion of Olive cultivation encompassing Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nepal with its headquarters in Islamabad. Another project," Commercialisation and Promotion of Olive and Olive Products for Economic Development and Poverty Alleviation" would be started at a cost of Rs 382 million in September this year.
Raffel Telcima, the technical expert among the delegates said that Italy was already working on promoting fruit culture in Swat and would work in Buner, Lower Dir, etc for the cultivation of olive. He said that their activities would be in co-ordination with University of Peshawar, ARID University Rawalpindi and other institutes.
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