MUSCAT, FEB 23
A government-backed ginger cultivation project in Dhofar Governorate is showing early signs of commercial promise after second-season output rose to 2.5 tonnes — results officials say could support import substitution and new farm incomes if scaled up.
The project was launched in 2024 by the Directorate General of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources in Dhofar and is financed by the Agricultural and Fisheries Development Fund. It is being implemented in the Wilayats of Rakhyout and Dhalkout over a 2024–2027 timeline.
Eng Ridwan bin Abdullah al Ibrahim, Director of the Agricultural Development Department at the directorate and the project manager, said the pilot targets 60 farmers and is structured as a full support programme — not only crop planting — providing technical and extension services from land preparation through to harvest.
The first phase was inaugurated in June 2024 with around 30 farmers and a combined cultivated area estimated at about two feddans. Production in the first season reached roughly one tonne after harvest, he said.
A second phase was completed in 2025, bringing in another 30 farmers. The second-season crop was harvested in February 2026 and yielded an estimated 2.5 tonnes — more than double the first season’s output.
“These initial results indicate ginger is a promising crop that can be expanded on an investment basis to increase domestic production and replace imports”, Al Ibrahim said, adding that the programme includes guidance on field preparation, installation of modern irrigation systems and close monitoring across growth stages.
The ginger initiative builds on the experience of Dhofar’s earlier turmeric localisation project, which officials cite as a model for introducing higher-value crops suited to local conditions. Agriculture planners see the new project as part of a wider push to strengthen food security while diversifying rural livelihoods through commercially viable cultivation.
Project management is now working to expand the programme to additional wilayats and reach a larger segment of farmers over the next two years, Al Ibrahim said. The goal is to deepen community participation in modern farming and generate more sustainable income opportunities for families through a crop officials describe as highly promising.
For policymakers, the test case is not only about yield gains, but whether the model can scale into a competitive local value chain — with consistent farm productivity, quality control and practical routes for aggregation, marketing and distribution that can compete with imports.
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