Muscat – Nakheel Oman Development Company (NODC) has started the first phase of a project to plant 100,000 date palms in Al Najd Farm in the wilayat of Muqshin, Dhofar governorate, in continuation of its efforts to plant 1mn date palms.

In an interview with Oman TV, Saeed Mohammed al Wahshi, manager of Al Najd Farm, said, “Spread over 33mn sqm, this is one of the largest farms in the One Million Date Palms Plantation Project.”

According to Wahshi, the project aims to boost date varieties such as Fardh, Khalas, and Fahl. Farmers are sold date palm seedlings, while NODC purchases their crop of dates.

NODC also supplies dates to local markets and the industrial complex for dates in Nizwa, where the waste is converted into animal feed and fertilisers.

Oman has more than 250 indigenous varieties of dates. The most relished varieties among these known for their taste and succulence are the Khalas, Khunaizi and Fardh varieties.

NODC is the main recipient of the dates, as well as the palm waste, harvested in 11 farms distributed across six governorates of the One Million Date Palms Plantation Project.

Another company, Oman Dates Production and Packing Company, which was established in 2018, has invested in a project to set up an integrated factory in Barka and six collection centres in different governorates.

NODC purchases date products from farmers, and processes and packages these to sell in local markets and also for export.

In March 2021, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources announced the implementation of a project to create Model Fields for Date Palms.