(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Muscat- The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MoAF), in cooperation with Riyada, will launch the sixth Omani Dates Festival on Thursday.
The festival will have a number of activities including seminars and the sixth Omani Dates Market, to be held from October 24-31 in Al Khuwayr. The dates market is expected to attract around 70 participants including farmers and factory owners in addition to a number of public and private firms.
The festival aims to introduce the value of Omani dates, and its importance in terms of food and health, said H E Dr Fuad bin Ja'afar bin Mohammed al Sajwani, Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries.
'It also promotes cultural and heritage awareness of the palm and its importance to Omanis. It also aims to promote competition among farmers to pay attention to palm trees and encourage investment to increase local production of dates,' H E Dr Sajwani said. According to the statistics of 2017, estimates of local production of dates in the sultanate amounted to 361,000 tonnes, compared to 35,5000 tonnes for the season in 2016 and 344,000 tonnes in 2015.
Fifty-three per cent of the production was consumed locally in 2017 while six per cent was exported.
H E Dr Sajwani added, 'The ministry implements a national strategy for the promotion of date palms, such as the distribution of more than 725,000 seedlings to farmers in various governorates of the sultanate. The project aims at replacing palm trees with low productivity and advanced age with high productivity and quality plants, and re-organisation of palm tree planting in villages and agricultural oases.
The ministry also implemented a project to raise productivity (horticultural aspects) in order to increase the productivity of palm trees. This project was implemented in 79 date producing villages in 34 wilayats in the sultanate. More than 1,100 farmers benefited from this project.'
Speaking about marketing, he said, 'We have implemented a project to develop date filling and packaging units. The project supported 200 farms from different governorates and distributed more than 750 machines and equipment.'
The Omani Dates Festival will have a drawing competition, named 'Nkhlati'.
The competition will be conducted in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, and it aims to introduce students to the importance of the date palm. About 1,000 students from Muscat governorate will participate in the competition. A symposium at Sultan Qaboos University will focus on the standard specifications of Omani dates.
At the conclusion of the festival, the ministry will celebrate Tree Day, which falls on October 31 every year.
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