The ongoing wheat crisis in Pakistan isn’t something new and needs a quick fix. With the world’s top growers in Palestine facing genocide, the global olive trade has dropped considerably in the Middle East, and importers are shifting to top sellers in Spain, Italy, and Greece for the evergreen item.
Farmers in Pakistan can take a giant leap of faith and permanently shift to olive cultivation instead of wheat, since the federal government has year after year largely avoided local procurement in favor of importing the essential item.
It was only 3 years ago that Pakistan exported olive oil worth $2 million. But since then, the market has been neglected and we ended up spending $4.5 billion per year on edible oil imports. We should invest in olive cultivation and get into the oil business, as our lands are perfect for it.
According to revised estimates, Pakistan has so far managed to grow over 8 million olive trees. There are great climate conditions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Balochistan and Punjab. A few privy to this line of business told ProPakistani that there is at least 10 million acres of ready-for-sowing land to start olive farming in Punjab alone.
Wheat, maize, rice, sugarcane, and cotton make up the major components of agricultural production for Pakistan. In recent years, due to hikes in prices of essential commodities like pulses, onions, potatoes, chilies, and tomatoes, crops have gained substantial economic importance. The biggest test for our farmers in recent history is how to bypass the government’s wheat boycott in favor of imports.
Growing olive trees in Pakistan will not just improve the economy, but it will also mitigate climate change significantly.
Through an initiative in 2016, farmers in Punjab’s Potohar region grew 1 million olive trees on 8,000 acres. 750 farmers worked on the program and the olive produce offered a marginal cutback on olive oil imports, which had reached $2 billion per year at the time.
Last year, the Punjab government decided to grow around 50 million olive trees on 10 million acres of land by 2026. The outlook for olive farming in Pakistan is very promising, especially for wheat farmers who are being mistreated by the government these days.
If farmers take this leap, there’s a high chance most of them will get rich sooner. The only setback is that the waiting period is 3-5 years, while some rare varieties take at least 10-12 years to mature. However, the results will be huge. Olive trees produce fruit for decades and will make even a small-scale farmer very rich.
The wheat business is tricky for local farmers as the state prefers imported wheat. Let’s give olives a chance. A pretty big one.
Ahsan gardezi is 100% wrong .
Who is going to provide equipment for farming olive oil ? And growing olives is not feasible in our weather and climate.
Not to mention govt doesn’t support any inventive but first at taxing everyone.
If it was that easy to farm olives anyone could do it . Why isn’t india , bangladesh and other nations making olive oil and products ?
This is why speculative journalism is bad.
Will people eat olives instead of ‘Roti’ if your suggestion is to be taken seriously? Why such extreme measures?
Extremism is prevalent in this country, even in journalism.
Olive trees give fruit after 3/5 years. Also grow side line or boundry of plot. One tree give it’s fruit max 150 years.
Bullshit. Is this Ahmad gradezi agricultural graduate? Or a farmer? Doesn’t seem to be otherwise he wouldn’t be writing this fantasy.
Ahsan Gardezi is not wrong.
I checked the suitability of growing olive trees in the Pothohar region, and income therefrom,on Chatgpt. The meagre average rainfall and the climate in general of the area is very suitable for olive trees, and the income by 5 – 6th year and onwards is significantly more than our tyraditional crops of wheat, Sarson, Chana etc.
Thank you for trying to give a helpful suggestion to us poor wheat farmers. I know that your heart is in the right place. I think the biggest obstacle to olivr farming is that our weather is not very conducive to olivr farming, what little i know of olive farming is that you need cooler temperatures. Most of the country is for 8 month extremely hot to warm. Soil conditions would also prove to be a formidable obstacle. And wait period for tree to bear fruition os very tough for small scale farmers to survive then turning olive into oil , we don’t have the production capacity and capability. There are farmers in kpk amd balochistan who have taken the plunge. Wish them all the best. Maybe government will put on sensible glasses and procure local rather than import and fix fair prices. Given how expensive seed and fertilizer are and petrol on top of everything. Least government can do is set fair prices. I don’t think imf has our best interest at heart. They are out to destroy the backbone of our nation and that is the farming community