CHAKWAL
During the first annual meeting of the Olive Development Group (ODG), the USAID Punjab Enabling Environment Project (PEEP) and the Allied Foods signed a grant to establish a mobile olive extraction unit.
The Punjab government and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) established the ODG in May 2016 as part of their combined effort to transform the Potohar Valley in Punjab, into Pakistan’s first region dedicated to the cultivation of olives.
The ODG is chaired by Agriculture Secretary Muhammad Mahmood and includes representatives from the olive value chain, academia, and industry associations. Secretary Mahmood, USAID/Pakistan Mission
Director Jerry Bisson and a diverse group of sector stakeholders participated in the meeting.
Bisson also joined Mahmood in inaugurating an oil extraction unit at the Barani Agriculture Research Institute. “I would like to congratulate the agriculture department and the government of Punjab for their innovative efforts and commend USAID/PEEP team and group members for their continued support to the olive sector development in Punjab,” Bisson said.
USAID also provided technical assistance to the Punjab Agriculture Department to establish a policy and strategy unit and develop the olive sector development plan. The government of Punjab is providing more than two million olive plants to Punjab farmers over five years to catalyse 15,000 cultivated acres of olive trees.
