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42 Million date palms planted in UAE

Under the leadership of His Highness The President Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahayan, there are continual efforts to increase UAE date palm productivity in order to make better use of the date palm industry and to produce an agricultural leap that will change the face of the UAE desert.

Indeed, the Fourth International Date Palm Conference illustrates the special attention and priority given by His Highness to this important economic sector. The present conference is the fourth one in a series of international conferences organized by UAE during the last 11 years (March 08 –10, 1998, March 25 – 27, 2001, and 19 – 21 February 2006). Date palm scientists, experts, and senior official! s from around the world will be able to exchange their know-how and experiences. The Honorable Ministers of Agriculture of the GCC member states will be invited to attend the conference in order to disseminate the up-to-date knowledge and recommendations at the official level.

Nearly 300 participants from 40 countries and several international organizations have already confirmed their participation to the Fourth International Date Palm Conference. Interesting abstracts are being submitted by participants from the following countries: Albania, Algeria, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Canada, Costa Rica, Egypt, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Jordan, K.S.A, Kuwait, Libya, Malaysia, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Spain, Sudan, Syria,, Tunisia, Turkey, U.A.E, U.K, U.S.A and Yemen.

The objective of the conference is to provide an opportunity for updating scientific information on different aspects of the date palm production chain from farm to consumers. It is also a forum to compare the recent experiences in the United Arab Emirates with those of other date growing countries. Above all it is to foster international technical cooperation on different aspects of date palm production chain.

The theme of the conference is to explore new dimensions and challenges for sustainable date palm production under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahayan, President of UAE.

The conference will be in the international limelight due to the renowned speakers who will be attending the conference from all over the world. Besides there will also be senior officials from different date growing countries. A wide range of scientific subjects related to all aspects of date palm production will be presented. What makes this event much awaited event in haloed circles is: the scientific input from many countries of the world; innovative approach to scientific sessions; informational exhibition; and tours to the various sites of technical or tourist interest around United Arab Emirates.

The Conference has been slated to start from 15^th of March at the Emirates Palace Hotel, Emirates Palace Abu Dhabi. The main subjects that will come under debate will be as follows: Current Status of Date Palm Cultivation in the World; UAE date palm cultivation experience; Impacts of date culture on the environment and desertification control; Date Palm Research and Development; Molecular and genetic engineering; Germplasm and propagation; Improved date palm cultural practices; Date palm protection - focus will be on the most important diseases, pests and major diseases of date palm; and physiological disorders.

With a view of enhancing the production and proliferation of date palm research in the UAE and rewarding those individuals and institutions that have contributed substantially to it - The Khalifa International Date Palm Award was set up.

The Award mission is to encourage people involved in cultivation of date palms: researchers, growers, exporters, whether individuals or institutions, and to honor figures engaged in the date palm industry at the local, regional and international levels.

The conference and the award are some of the radical steps that the government has undertaken to make UAE’s landscape abundant in more ways than one by bringing the desert soil alive with the ever-increasing date palm development. Earning a Guinness Book Award for planting the most number of date palms was no surprise last year for UAE.