Scope of olives production on marginal and wasteland

As Pakistan struggles with increasingly unpredictable weather patterns linked to climate change, farmers in arid regions are seizing on a drought-resilient crop better known from southern Europe and the Middle East: olivesOlive growing is most suitable for arid and semi-arid areas because the plants need little water to grow and can also survive sweltering heat. Many olive saplings are being planted on wasteland, not currently used for agricultural production, and farmers are being advised and trained to cultivate olives on marginal land. The reason is Pakistan can nether convert all its agricultural land into olive orchards nor is there need of it If all agricultural land for plantation of olives then it may face shortages of wheat and rice.Pakistan has over 700,000 hectares (1.7 million acres) of wasteland suitable for olive cultivation, and could eventually produce around 1.84 million tons of olive oil a year if those areas were planted to olive groves. That would be enough oil to easily meet domestic consumption needs. With high global demand and rising prices for edible oils in the international market, Pakistan last year imported edible oil worth $2.5 billion. The import of edible oil may jump to $4 billion by 2016 if Pakistan fails to increase yield of its own edible oil.Pakistan, with the financial help of the Italian government, plans to plant olive saplings on 1,500 hectares of land in Potohar region and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan provinces in the next three years.Pakistan has identified potential olive cultivation areas in different parts of the country, including restive northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and southwestern Baluchistan province. The government of Punjab has declared Potohar region as “Olive Valley” for its suitability for olive growing.BENEFITS OF OLIVE CULTIVATIONFollowing are the major benefits1) Less consumption of water and greater productivity.2) Livelihood support and income generation for farmers living in drought effected area.3) Availability of highly demanded crop within the country.Hense we can simply say olive production has numerous benefits can help to generate higher income with minimum investment.