Daily Times

PESHAWAR: Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) in collaboration with Khushal Khan Khattak University Karak (KKKU), Pakistan Oilseed Development Board (PODB), and Olive Growers Association (Dir) organized training programs on small business management and olive grafting. The elders of wild olive groves owner communities and students of KKKU from district Karak, were invited to attend the training at a well-developed olive orchard area of Lower Dir. The purpose of the training programs was to replicate the idea of wild olive conversion into edible oil bearing varieties in other potential districts, The participants of the training were told that the annual demand of edible oil in Pakistan is estimated around 3.5 million tons against the per capita edible oil consumption of 12-13 liters. About 2.67 million tons edible oil is imported whereas 0.86 million tons is domestically produced. The geographic location and climatic conditions of Pakistan makes the olive oil amongst the best options. It was the intervention of the PODB that resulted in adoption of edible olive cultivars in KP and a few districts are producing table olive and oil bearing one. These include the plantation as well as wild olive conversions. As per the estimates of the PODB, there are about 34 million wild olive trees in KP/FATA. After the comprehensive training including the on field olive grafting, the olive growers community of Karak, expressed their interest to immediately start with top work over 1,000 wild olive trees. Noor Saeed representing the community stated that the model of the Lower Dir is worth to be adopted for income generation, employment, and discouraging deforestation.