MUSCAT: Nakheel Oman Development Company, the largest producer of dates in the Sultanate of Oman, is setting up a major date farm at Ibri in Al Dhahirah Governorate, which is set to be the biggest wholly organic date cultivation project of its kind in the country.
Covering an area of around 5 million square metres, the farm currently hosts around 34,000 palm trees of the premium Khalas, Fard, and Majdoul varieties. When fully cultivated, the farm will boast a total of around 100,000 trees.
Distinguishing the farm from the numerous other plantations overseen by Nakheel Oman are the wholly organic farming methodologies employed by the company in the cultivation of dates at Ibri. The farm is tended without the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides or genetic modifications of plants, thereby contributing to the production of the highest quality and most popular dates.
Eng Salem bin Saif al Abdali of Nakheel Oman said organic farming constitutes an important addition to the company’s cultivation portfolio. The Ibri farm also houses organic pollinators that are used to pollinate palm trees during the pollen season, he noted According to Eng Masoud bin Saeed al Hinai, Supervisor of the organic farm, the Ibri facility employs modern irrigation and pollination techniques to enhance productivity, farming efficiency, conservation of water, and harvests. Drones are also deployed to complement pollination, thereby contributing to quality cultivation and harvests, he said.
Al-Hinai pointed out that the farm uses groundwater for irrigation. Divided into scores of plots of 100 trees each, the farm is irrigated based on the actual requirements of each plot taking into account the age of the tree and time of year.
Cultivation began in 2020, with around 218 tonnes of dates harvested during the last season, he said, adding that the project will also contribute to Oman’s food security goals.
Nakheel Oman represents a partnership of Oman Food Investment Holding Company (Nitaj) and Oman National Investments Development Company (Tanmia). Last year, the company brought into operation a major dates processing plant with a capacity of 86,000 tonnes per annum.
Under an agreement signed with the Diwan of Royal Court, Nakheel Oman is also procuring all of the date output of the many plantations set up under the One Million Date Palms Project for a period of 30 years. The output is being processed at the Nakheel Oman’s Nizwa plant for the production of date products, derivatives, fodder and other commodities. (ONA)
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