The Provincial Development Working Party (PDWP) Sindh has approved a scheme for the oilpalm plantation on 2,000 acres at six different locations in Thatta coastal zone.
These will serve as model farms along with an extraction plant of two tonnes per hour capacity.
The project has been floated by Sindh Coastal Development Authority (SCDA) at a total cost of Rs 198.038 million and will be implemented in 84 months.
It was conceived by the SCDA under the CDA sector to make local growers aware of the cost- effectiveness and socio-economic benefits of oilpalm plantation for which coastal zone of Sindh is most suitable.
According to official sources on Friday, the project is expected to yield 15,360 tonnes of raw material of Fresh Fruit Bunches (FFB) every year after the seventh year plantation.
The same will then be processed in the oilpalm Extraction Unit, which is likely to be imported and installed at Gharo Farm, Thatta, sources disclosed. With good management, the FFB are expected to carry 2,000 to 3,000-tonne fruits.
The SCDA is likely to execute the project in co-ordination with the Works and Services Department for the civil part and with the Forest department as model farms.
Sources in the SCDA said that it was the high time that serious efforts be made to go for massive oilpalm plantation as Pakistan was doling out a huge Rs 50 billion annually from its foreign reserves for the import of 1.4 million tonnes of edible oil from abroad.
Only 0.7 million tonnes of edible oil is made available with the local production of rapeseed, cottonseed, sunflower and soyabean.
The project will be managed intensively for demonstration purposes to create awareness amongst coastal growers and motivate them to bring their cultivable land under oilpalm plantation, and replacing the same with the other crops.
Sources in the SCDA said apprehension that fruiting of oilpalm would take eight long years could be brushed aside by the introduction of inter-cropping of fodder, vegetables, banana, papaya and wheat. The income of which had been worked out at Rs 15,000 per oilpalm plantation acre.
Sources claimed that palmoil was the oil of tomorrow and Pakistan had the potential of not only fulfilling its requirements but could become an edible oil exporter in 20 years time.