Saturday 01 / March / 2025
Muscat: The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources has announced its desire to establish orchards of fruit trees, including the cultivation of tissue date palm offspring. The plan also includes plantation of several varieties of mango and Omani lemon trees for farmers willing to undertake the project in the governorates.
A statement issued by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources said, “Those who have the desire to implement the project must submit a request to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources by filling out the designated form in the departments/centres of social development in the various governorates of the Sultanate within two weeks of the publication of this announcement. Applicants must fulfil the following conditions:
The applicant must be an Omani citizen and have an existing agricultural holding or farm with an usufruct contract for the cultivation of the approved crops. Interested persons should submit the following documents: A copy of the farm ownership deed or a copy of a valid usufruct contract with a copy of the survey drawing of agricultural land and a copy of a valid agricultural possession card.
Moreover, the location of the fields should be within the farming range and in areas that have suitable environment conditions for cultivating date palm crops, Omani mango and lemon varieties.
And, the soil of the farm should be suitable for farming, and it must have an authorised well and the salinity of the water should not exceed 1,000 micromos.
There should be a commitment to plant date palm seedlings at a distance of 8.8 metres with a rate of 65 seedlings/acre and a distance of 7.7 metres should, be maintained for the varieties of mango and Omani lemon trees with a rate of 86 seedlings/acre.
Irrigation system
There should be a modern irrigation system for the target area such as fountain system.
It is stipulated that the area of the field for cultivation should not be less than 5 acres and not more than 10 acres for one of the two groups, date palms or Omani mango and lemon varieties, and the cultivation should be done at one site.
For the cultivation, approval should be made by the Ministry of Agriculture from date palms (Farth, Kalasa,Majhool, Fahool) and the varieties recommended by the Ministry for mangoes in addition to Omani lemon variety.
The date palm project is implemented by planting the field according to the following (cultivation of 100 per cent of the above-mentioned varieties) or agriculture by 80 per cent of the Farth variety and 20 per cent of the other mentioned varieties), or (cultivation of 50 per cent of the Farth and 50 per cent of the other varieties.)
The Ministry will support the acquisition of tissue palm seedlings produced in the tissue culture laboratory, Farth (OMR2), Khalas (OMR5), Al Majhool (OMR1) and Fahool varieties (OMR1) and Omani mango and lemon seedlings are free of charge, in accordance with Ministerial Resolution No. 95/2010.
Those interested in the cultivation and care of date palms, mango trees and Omani lemons, should commit to implement farming practices in accordance with the recommendations of the Ministry.
The approval of the beneficiary of the project will be based on the Ministry’s specialists’ visit to the project site to verify that it meets the above-mentioned conditions before starting planting, along with continuous follow-ups and evaluation of the farm.
The beneficiaries of the project will be selected provided they meet the above conditions before starting the plantation .
A period of one month will be given to the beneficiary to complete the installation of the irrigation system, otherwise his right to benefit from the project will be forfeited and replaced by another beneficiary from the reserve list.
While the deadline for receiving applications is September 17, 2020, the Ministry has the right to accept or reject the application that doesn’t meet the given criteria.
