MUSCAT: The Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) and the Diwan of the Royal Court signed a cooperation programme on Sunday in order to develop the date palm growing sector in the Sultanate. SQU will cooperate with the One Million Date Palm Tree Project supervised by the Diwan of the Royal Court in terms of agricultural, manufacturing and research aspects through the laboratory analysis of soil, water, plant tissues and fruit from the farms and use of treated wastewater for irrigation of the farms.
The cooperation programme was signed by Dr Rahma bint Ibrahim al Mahrouqi, SQU Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Postgraduate Studies and Research, and Dr Saif bin Rashid al Shaqsi, Director-General of the Directorate-General of One Million Date Palm Tree Project at the Diwan of Royal Court.
Dr Rahma said that this cooperation programme comes within the framework of existing and ongoing research cooperation between the University of Sultan and the One Million Date Palm Tree project. ‘Conducting research on agriculture, nature of soil, water and fertilizer is an important component to the success of the Date Palm Tree project. The College of Agricultural and Marine Sciences at SQU is well equipped with qualified research staff and it contributes actively to the continuity and progress of related sectors’, she added.
Dr Saif bin Rashid Al Shaqsi said that Sultan Qaboos University has great experience in this field and the cooperation between the two organizations continues in many fields. He thanked the university for its support to his organization and hoped that this cooperation program would flourish and it is meant to service the Omani society in the future, by improving the quality of the fruits by using the right type of fertilizers and water and studying their impact on the quality of the date fruits produced.
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