Rif Dimashq-SANA
While olive growers continue to harvest their season in Rif Dimashq Governorate, the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform expected the current season’s production to exceed 40,000 tons, most of it in the Qatana area, while the cultivated area in the governorate amounted to more than 19,198 hectares with 3 million and 712 thousand trees.
Director of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform in the province, Engineer Irfan Ziadeh, described in a statement to SANA reporter the production in good compared to the last season, explaining that the production of Qatana area constitutes about 50 percent of the total production of the province, followed by the Kiswa, Al-Haramoun, Al-Tal and Douma. Eight olive presses are distributed in the countryside of Damascus.
Ziada pointed out that the harvest season, which began at the end of October, will continue until the beginning of the first month of 2022 in some areas, explaining that olive varieties vary between Dan, Jalt, Masabi, Tafahi, Sourani, Qaisi, and Nabali, and some of them are required for the table, such as Sourani, Tufahi and al-Nabali.
For his part, Director of Qatna Agriculture, Talal Ahmed, confirmed that the olive season is the mainstay for the population, and the region’s oil is distinguished by its taste and shape, pointing out that the total cultivated area exceeds 4,924 hectares, and the number of trees reaches 961,500 trees, while the production is estimated at more than 16.7 thousand tons.
Olive farmers in the Qatana area considered, in statements to SANA, that production for this season ranges between good and average, due to the fact that they do not obtain all their needs of diesel and fertilizers, as some fields need irrigation.
The farmer, Ismail Muammar, indicated that he depends for his livelihood on the olive season and owns about 70 dunums planted with various types of olives, and is working to increase the cultivated area, expecting to produce about 5 tons of olives, indicating that olive oil prices have improved this season.
Ismail stressed that the olive trees need pruning, cultivation, fertilization, care and follow-up in order to give a production commensurate with the cost, while the farmer Jamil Mark pointed out that the cultivated area for him reaches 15 dunums of rainfed planted with about 350 trees and 20 dunums of irrigation, estimated that his production will reach 5 tons this season, but He called for providing more support to olive farmers and providing their needs of diesel and fertilizers.
Ismail Ambassador
To follow SANA news on Telegram: https://t.me/SyrianArabNewsAgency