DefinePK

Abstract

ABSTRACT The edible varieties of olive (Olea europaea) were first introduced in the Punjab as far back as 1866. Over a period of 100 years sporadic attempts have been made to grow the tree under a wide range of climatic and edaphic conditions either by importing grafted plants from France, Italy, Spain and Turkey or by budding or top working on the indigenous wild olive (Olea cuspidata). The history of these attempts carried out in the Punjab, Azad Kashmir and N.W.F.P. has been well documented by Chopra (1), Khan (3) and Chaudhry (2). Khairimurat Plantation: Of all the work done, the most productive effort has so far been the Khairimurat plantation, a 20 hectare piece of land 56 km south west of Islamabad. Here in 1965, 2-year old 4480 plants of the following 7 varieties from Italy were planted: