Governor said here Tuesday if appropriate investment is made on the project and 10 million plants of olive area planted on 0.1 million acres it would not only help meet edible oil requirements but precious foreign exchange of Rs150 billion could be saved by exporting the product against import of edible oil every year.

The governor has called a meeting of concerned officials at the Governor House to review the said projects and prepare a comprehensive plan. He also suggested constituting a task force in this regard.

He said if work on this project was carried out with the same pace it would take 500 years for olive cultivation over 0.5 million acres of land.

It may be recalled that in Zhob, Sherani, Barkhan, Loralai, Harnai, Killa Saifullah, Musakhel, Kohlu, Washuk, Khuzdar, Kalat, and Bolan districts are most suitable areas for olive cultivation and growers in these areas are also ready for it.

Presently, olive is grown over less than one thousand acres of land.

Copyright PPI (Pakistan Press International), 2011