`Islamabad, Pakistan Plants 5,000 Olive Trees in Bid to Beautify City - Olive Oil Times

Islamabad, Pakistan Plants 5,000 Olive Trees in Bid to Beautify City

By Isabel Putinja
Dec. 4, 2014 15:03 UTC
Islamabad, Pakistan (Photo: Wikipedia)

The Capital Development Authority (CDA), which pro­vides munic­i­pal ser­vices in the city, launched a plan­ta­tion drive” in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the National Agriculture Research Council (PARC). 5,000 olive trees will be planted dur­ing the first phase of the project which aims to beau­tify the city and increase green cover. Olive trees are ini­tially being planted along the Kashmir high­way and other entry points to the city.

According to the coop­er­a­tion agree­ment, PARC is pro­vid­ing the olive saplings which are being planted and main­tained by the CDA. The launch of an envi­ron­men­tal aware­ness pro­gram is also planned to encour­age cit­i­zens to plant and look after trees.

According to Pakistan Today, the chair­man of CDA, Maroof Afzal, said that the olive plant is unique in its nature” and that these olive trees will not only give fruits but their seeds will also be used for extrac­tion of olive oil.”

Islamabad has been deemed par­tic­u­larly suit­able for the plant­ing of olive trees: Islamabad has mod­er­ate win­ter cli­mate as there is no snow­fall here, there­fore plant­ing olive is favor­able in this sea­son,” said Sardar Mustafa, a spokesman for PARC, accord­ing to the Dawn news web­site.

In September of this year, the city of Oujda in north­east­ern Morocco intro­duced a ban on olive trees in the city and ordered their removal, cit­ing allergy risks.


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