dates in sindh pdf format.pdf

Proceedings of the International Dates Seminar 28th July 2009, Khairpur, Sindh, Pakistan

59


60

Dates in Sindh: Facts and Figures

Mushtaque Ahmed Jatoi, Zahida Markhand and Najamuddin Solangi

Date Palm Research Institute, Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur, Sindh

([email protected] and [email protected])

HISTORY

Date palm is one of the oldest plants cultivated by man and its origin

is thought to be Mesopotamia (Iraq), Gulf region or Indus Civilization.

The presence of date fruits in the excavation of Moen-jo-Daro storage

vases indicates the presence of date palm cultivation in Sindh as early

as 2000 B.C (Jandan, 1974). Whereas, silicified seeds or mineralized

date stones of 6000 B.C have been tested from Mehargarh IB and IIB

sites of Pakistan (Costantini, 1985). On the other hand some scholars

believed that date palm have been brought to the Indo-Pak subcontinent

by Alexander the great (Pasha et al., 1972 and Nixon, 1951). While it is a

general concept among scholars that dates were probably introduced in

Sindh by Forces of Mohammed Bin Qasim in 712 A.D. Because, since

the dawn of ancient history, the Date Palm has been an important source

of food for the Arabian Peninsula (Popenoe, 1913). They threw date

seeds at camping places during wars from which date palm grew and

flourished in the Indus valley.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

Date palm belongs to family Arecaceae, is a monocot, perennial

plant extensively cultivated for its edible sweet fruit. The fruit is a drupe

known as a date. The term Phoenix dactylifera L. was given by Carolus

Linnaeus in his binomial nomenclature in 1753. The term Dactylifera is

derived from the Greek word “Dactylor” which means “finger”. Date palm

being a dioecious plant is conventionally propagated through its

offshoots because propagation through its seeds will not bring the true to

type progeny of Date Palm. However Plant tissue culture is a new and

fast growing method for propagation of date palm and is practicing in

many date palm growing regions, including Sindh, where a well

established institute namely “Date Palm Research Institute, Khairpur” is

working on various aspects of date palm including its propagation

through plant tissue culture.


61

Date Palm likes a warm climate where summers are considerably

longer than winters. As per an Arabic saying the date palm should be

grown with its feet in running water and its head in fire. Date Palm

prefers a rainfall of 200 to 250 mm; late rains during flowering and

ripening periods are harmful for date palm. Date palm requires sandy

loam and clayey loam soils and can tolerate soils with high levels of salts

up to 22,000 parts per million (Gepts, 2002).

Date Palm may reach an age of 100-150 years and height of 100-

120 feet or 30 m (Gepts, 2002). Normally the useful age limit is less and

consequently the height will not be more than 15-20 m maximum before

it will cut down because of declining yield and increasing difficulty and

danger to reach the crown during pollination, bunch management and

harvesting. Dates are naturally wind pollinated in both traditional oasis

and horticulture but in the modern commercial orchards they are entirely

pollinated manually. Natural pollination occurs with about an equal

number of male and female plants. However, with assistance, male

flowers from a single tree can be used to pollinate 40 to 50 female date

palms (Rani et al., 2007).The main stages in the date palm life cycle are:

• Suitable age of suckers for transplanting 2-3 years

• Time to start bearing fruits 4-5 years

• Time to full production 6-8 years

• Full productivity but no more offshoots formation 30-35 years

• Normal economic bearing life 50 years

• Declining fruit yields after 50 years

• Time of transplanting Whole year, specially May to July

• Time of flowering Feb to March

• Time of harvest July to Oct

The dates in one growing season take 200-210 days from pollination

to full fruit maturation (Saleem, 2004). According to Al-Hooti et al., (1997)

fruit maturation undergoes through four major stages, identified by their

Arabic names as:

1. Kimri: Small green, hard texture, non edible with high moisture

approximately 80%.


62

2. Khalal (Doka stage): Bright yellow or red in color, hard and crisp,

physiologically mature, moisture contents 50-85%.

3. Rutab (Dang stage): Partially browned and softened at the tip and

reduced moisture contents to 30-35%.

4. Tamar (Pind or Chuhhara stage): Color from Amber to dark brown,

texture from soft pliable to firm, moisture content reduced below 25%

down to 10% and less.

IMPORTANCE

Date fruits being sweet and most nutritious supplying 2500-3000

Calories/kg (Amin, 2007) consumed as a staple food because the sugar

content of ripe dates is about 80%; the remainder consists of protein, fat

and mineral products including copper, sulphur, iron, magnesium and

fluoric acid. Dates are high in fiber and an excellent source of potassium.

Date palm with its unique characteristics can truly be called the “tree

of life “ because date palm has been so closely connected with the

survival and well being of humans living in hot and arid environments.

Without the existence of the date palm, expansion of human race into the

hot and barren part of the ancient world would have been much more

restricted.

Every part of the date palm tree has its uses. The wood and leaves

provide timber and fabric for houses and fences. The leaves are used for

making ropes, fans, mats, hats, cord, baskets, crates and furniture.

Bases of the leaves and the fruit stalks are used as fuel. The fruit yields

food products such as date vinegar, date chutney or sweet pickle, date

paste for bakery products etc.

The Date palm has religious values as well as cultural importance in

all major religions of the world. It is important in ceremonies of Judaism,

Christianity, Islam and Hinduism. The reason for this is mainly the

influence of Prophet Ibrahim, whose love for dates and date palm has left

a lasting influence on these religions. According to the Holy Book Qur'an,

dates have always been considered beneficial to mothers. When Mary

gave birth to the Prophet Jesus (may peace be upon Him) under a palm

tree, she heard a voice telling her: "Shake the trunk of the palm tree

towards thee: it will drop fresh, ripe dates upon thee. Eat, then, and


63

drink, and let thine eye be gladdened!" (Qur'an 19:25-26). There are over

20 references to date and date palms in the Holy Quran. The Holy

Prophet (Peace be Upon Him) also highlighted the importance of dates

and date palms on many occasions. Such as: There is among trees one

that is pre-eminently blessed, as is the Muslim among men; it is the date

palm" and “Homes without dates is as good as a home without food”.

DATE PALM DISEASES

Diseases in date palm may be either biotic or abiotic. Biotic diseases

are caused by pathogens like fungi and bacteria and insects like Red

Palm Weevil and Fruit stalk borer etc. Both pathogens and insects are

responsible for great damage to date palm in Sindh. Abiotic diseases are

caused by Physiological disorders such as, too low or too high

temperature, lack or excess of soil moisture, lack or excess of light, lack

of oxygen, air pollution, nutrient deficiencies, toxicities of pesticides etc.

Some palms show resistance to their biotic pathogens and to conditions

which cause abiotic diseases but all date palms are susceptible to

mismanagement of water, the extremes of pruning and poor planting

practices.

BIOTIC DISEASES

Biotic diseases are caused by pathogens and are usually fungal in

etiology, the most common fungal diseases of Date Palm in Sindh are:

• Sudden decline of date palm (drying) in Sindh caused by soil borne fungi Fusarium spp.

• Grapholia leaf spot caused by Grapholia phoenicis.

• Leaf spot of Date Palm caused by Mycosphaerella spp.

• Inflorescence rot of Date Palm caused by Mauginiella scaettae.

• Fruit rot of Date Palm caused by Aspergilus spp.

• Diplodia disease of date palm caused by Diplodia phoenicum.

While the Red Palm Weevil or Indian Palm Weevil, Rhynchophorus

ferrugineus is also damaging the date crop in Sindh. It bores into the

stem from the exposed soft tissues and entire crown to wither and die

Whereas Lesser Date Moth (Batrachedra amydraula Meyrick) and Fruit

Stalk Borer (Oryctes elegans Prell) are also causing a great damage to

date palm.


64

ABIOTIC DISEASES

Abiotic diseases are caused by re-occurring environmental

conditions that compromise the long-term growth and development of the

palm. Some of them described by Zaid et al., (2002) are given below:

Crosscuts

A crosscut is a physiological disorder of fruit stalks and fronds.

Crosscuts or V-cuts are clean breaks in the tissues of the fruit stalk

bases and on fronds. It consists of a slight to deep notch, similar to a cut

artificially done by a knife. Fruits born on strands in line with the break

wither and fail to mature properly. Crosscuts result from an anatomical

defect in the fruit stalks and fronds involving internal, sterile cavities

leading to mechanical breaks during elongation of the stalk or the fronds.

Leaf Apical Drying

This is not a disease but a physiological reaction to transplantation of

adult palms (injury of their root system). All palms with these symptoms

recover within two to three years after their transplanting.

Frost Damage

When temperature falls below 0°C, it causes serious metabolic

disorders with some injury to date palm leaves characterized by a partial

or total desiccation. Water of protoplasma freezes after coming out from

the cells. During defrost, water invaded inter-cellular spaces and affected

leaves turn brown and desiccated. The severity of damage is related to

the intensity and duration of frost. Frost injury to the date palm groves is

not a direct loss of fruit on the palm but freezing produces loss of leaves

so that the palm cannot support and mature the fruit crop following year.

DATE PALM VARIETIES

Date varieties have been developed by thousands of years of

selection of seedlings and only those possessing desirable

characteristics have been propagated. Date palm counts for more than

3000 varieties all around the world. There are about 400 in Iran, 370 in

Iraq, 250 in Tunisia, 244 in Morocco, as well as many additional varieties

in the other major date growing countries (Rani et al., 2007). Whereas

Popenoe listed 1,500 descriptions of the fruit and palm, as well as the

history and significance of the most important, country by country, in his

book, The Date Palm (written in 1924 but published in 1973).


65

There are three main cultivar groups of dates e.g. soft, semi-dry and

dry. The type of fruit depends on the glucose, fructose and sucrose

content. In soft dates about 80 percent of the dry matter is invert sugars

(mixture of equal parts of glucose and fructose), while in semi-dry dates,

about 40 percent of the dry matter is invert sugars and forty percent is

sucrose. In dry dates, about 20 to 40 percent of the dry matter is invert

sugars and 40 to 60 percent is sucrose (Bender and Bender, 2005).

There are more than 300 varieties of dates in Khairpur, Sindh,

Pakistan and this is the biodiversity centre of dates (Markhand and Abul

Soad, 2007 and Mahar, 2007). Province wise Elite date varieties of

Pakistan are:

Sindh: Aseel, Karbalian, Fasli, Dedhi, Kupro, Gajjar, Kachoo wari,

Began, Mithri, Bhedir, Khar, Autaqin and Asul khurmo.

Punjab: Zahidi, Hilawi, Khudravi and Shamran.

Baluchistan: Muzawati, Begum Jangi, Shakri, Halini, Sabzo, Hussaini,

Aab-e-dandan, Jaan Swore, Kehraba and Rabai.

NWFP: Dhakki and Gulistan.

ASEEL VARIETY

The Aseel variety is the most important commercial variety of

Pakistan. This is a predominant variety of Khairpur. It is an excellent

semi-dry variety with suitable fruit size (4.3 cm in length and 2.5 cm in

diameter), oblong, narrow near the base and widest in the middle. The

fruit of this variety is consumed at Rutab (Dang) and Tamr stage. Aseel

has sweet taste without scorch in the throat. This is very important

character for the excellent varieties. The environmental conditions and

soil types play an important role in the properties of this variety's fruit.

Aseel fruit produced from palms grown in Eastern part of district (near to

small mountain range) has low moisture content. Consequently, the shelf

life of this fruit is longer than the fruit of the same variety in the rest of

district. The fruit of Aseel variety cannot be eaten at Khalal stage due to

the high percentage of tannins. However, many growers harvest Aseel

crop at khalal stage and boil fruit to make "Chuhara". Otherwise, whole of

the crop will be destroyed and lost if there is monsoon rain (Markhand

and Abul Soad, 2007).


66

DATES PRODUCTION

Dates are cultivated mainly in warmer regions of Asia and Africa.

Some important date growing countries are Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia,

Pakistan, Algeria, Sudan, Libya, and Tunisia. It is also grown in some

parts of Europe (Italy, Spain) and California (USA).

Due to soil and seasons, Pakistan is an ideal place for date palm

cultivation. The area under cultivation of date palm is 90100 hectares

with production of 600000 tons of dates annually and is fourth largest

producer of dates in the world after Egypt, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

As per figures of Federal Bureau of Statistics of Pakistan (2007-08),

year wise area and production of Dates of Pakistan is given in “000”

thousands of hectares and production in tons.

2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08

Area Production Area Production Area Production Area Production

81.7 622.1 82.0 496.6 84.7 426.3 90.1 557.5

Source: Federal Bureau of Statistics of Pakistan, 2007-08.

Dates are growing in all four provinces of Pakistan. The main dates

producing areas of Pakistan are Turbat and Panjgoor (Baluchistan),

Khairpur and Sukkur (Sindh), Muzaffar Garh, Jhang, Multan and D.G

Khan (Punjab) and D.I. Khan (NWFP).

It is evident from the area that the trend of date palm cultivation is

increasing. Comparison of production and area of dates in Pakistan and

Sindh and its share is given below:

2004-05 2005-06 2006-07

Pak Sindh Share %

Pak Sindh Share %

Pak Sindh Share %

Area (Hect) 81727 26440 32.35 81991 26681 32.54 84695 29263 34.55

Production (Tons)

622404 318232 51.13 496576 192810 38.83 426281 201020 47.16

Source: Planning and Development Department, Government of Sindh.


67

Date Palm is an important crop of Sindh, mainly growing in Khairpur

and Sukkur districts. Almost 85% of the Sindh dates produced only in

Khairpur.

DATES IMPORT

Pakistan imports dates worth around $4.45 million annually. This

import is made in spite of domestic production of over 600000 tons a

year. When Ramazan will precede dates harvesting season, import of

this fruit will increase manifold (Jalbani, 2009).

According to FAOSTAT (2007) the major importers of dates are:

RANK COUNTRY IMPORT (TONS) VALUE (1000 $) UNIT VALUE ($/TON)

1 India 253341 72359 286

2 Morocco 50473 43524 862

3 France 27439 66741 2432

4 Russia 22375 13628 609

5 Pakistan 19777 5250 265

6 Bangladesh 18546 5584 301

7 Indonesia 15549 12055 775

8 Malaysia 15346 20974 1367

9 U.K 14357 34564 2407

10 Yemen 13136 6462 492

11 Turkey 13092 6874 525

12 U.A.E 12266 14654 1195

13 Syria 11274 4979 442

14 Niger 11020 1286 117

15 Germany 10790 29768 2759

16 USA 8646 11308 1308

17 Canada 8605 16406 1907

18 Jordan 8534 7242 849

19 Italy 7230 20299 2808

20 Spain 7152 21803 3049

Source: FAO Statistics, 2007.


68

DATES EXPORT

Date palm is the third commercial fruit crop of Pakistan after Citrus

and Mango (Pakistan Horticulture Development and Export Board). The

export of dates is mainly occurring from Khairpur and Turbat districts of

Pakistan. Pakistan appeared on the map of date exporting countries of

the world in the beginning of 1980s when Iran and Iraq went to war and

now became the second largest exporter of this fruit in the world

(FAOSTAT, 2007).

According to FAOSTAT (2007) world Dates export is as under:

RANK COUNTRY EXPORT (TONS) VALUE (1000 $) UNIT VALUE ($/TON)

1 Iran 242092 83083 343

2 Pakistan 104090 38271 368

3 Tunisia 68856 164759 2393

4 Saudi Arabia 48762 40529 831

5 U.A.E 38691 19988 517

6 Iraq 37063 9532 257

7 Algeria 25039 23140 924

8 France 10470 29524 2820

9 Israel 9513 52592 5528

10 Oman 9368 5687 607

11 Egypt 4704 3014 641

12 Mexico 3891 7363 1892

13 USA 3259 18863 5788

14 Jordan 2806 2924 1042

15 Germany 2743 10246 3735

16 Niger 1823 390 214

17 Netherlands 1775 7904 4453

18 Turkey 1366 1339 980

19 Malaysia 925 721 779

20 Singapore 904 1445 1598

Source: FAO Statistics, 2007.


69

Pakistan dates export consists of fresh and dried dates. As per

figures of Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP), the year

wise export of fresh and dried dates of Pakistan is as under:

ITEM UNIT QTY 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09

Fresh Dates `000` Kg 4023 6767 2576 2175

Dried Dates `000` Kg 85326 97323 31143 36760

Source: Trade Development Authority of Pakistan.

As per figures of TDAP (2007-08) the existing export of Pakistani

dates (fresh and dry) to selected markets of the world is:

S. NO. COUNTRY EXPORT FRESH DATES EXPORT DRIED DATES

1 India 168 85135

2 USA 1079 667

3 U.K 562 378

4 Bangladesh 1057 522

5 Canada 418 395

6 Germany 558 458

7 Denmark 237 61

8 Malaysia 44 ----

9 South Africa 420 43

10 Sri Lanka 48 6

11 Japan ------- 281

12 U.A.E ------- 194

13 Saudi Arabia ------- 101

14 China ------- 34

15 Nepal ------- 32

16 Australia ------- 25

Source: Trade Development Authority of Pakistan.


70

The date markets of Khairpur and Sukkur export about 80-90% of

dried dates (Chuhara) to India, where being used in religious activities.

But the tension between India and Pakistan after Mumbai blast has

affected export of dried dates to India. Thus we are supposed to find out

new markets for our dates or it will be a great loss.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Pakistan has vast potential of export dates but efforts are required to

apply post-harvest management and processing techniques to qualify

the International standards. For better production and yield of dates there

is a need of extensive research so that quality could match with

international requirements of sanitary and phyto-sanitary (SPS)

measures; selection of disease-free plants; screening out of bad

varieties, pre and post-harvest management; processing and behavioral

trainings of the staff for their role in the system; integrated supply chain

(from farm to fork) for handling, processing, packing, marketing and

export of dates and date products. Other measures include setting up of

advanced dates processing and preservation units in date growing

areas, standardized packaging and presentation, national branding and

market diversification and establishment of modern marketing system.

REFERENCES

Al-Hooti, S., J. S. Sidhu and H. Qabazard. 1997. Physico Chemical

characteristics of five date fruit cultivars grown in United Arab

Emirates. Plant food for Human nutrition. Vol. 50 (2): 101-113.

Amin, M., S. Zafar and A. Y. Anjum. 2007. Potential of dates export.

Daily Dawn. May 07.

Bender, D. A. and A. E. Bender. 2005. A Dictionary of Food and

Nutrition. New York: Oxford University Press.

Costantini, L. 1985. Considerazioni su alcuni reperti di palma da dattero

e sul centro di origine e l'area du coltivazione della Phoenix

dactylifera L. In: G. Gnoli and L. Lanciotti (eds.), Orientalia Josephi

Tucci Memoriae Dicata: Rome: Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed

Esremo Oriente, Serie Orientale Roma 56 (1): 209-217.

Federal Bureau of Statistics, Pakistan, 2007-08.


71

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

Statistics. 2007.

Gepts, P. 2002. The crop of the day: The Date, Phoenix dactylifera, UC

Davis Department of plant sciences, Davis, CA, USA.

Jalbani, M. E. 2009. Issues in date production and exports. Daily Dawn.

September 07.

Jandan, D. M. 1974. Studies of some characters of important varieties of

date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) grown in Khairpur. M.Sc Thesis,

University of Sindh, Jamshoro.

Mahar, A.Q. 2007. Post-harvest studies of different varieties of Date

Palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) fruits, their protection, identification,

processing and preservation at district Khairpur, Sindh, Pakistan.

Ph.D Thesis, Date Palm Research Institute, Shah Abdul Latif

University, Khairpur, Sindh, Pakistan.

Markhand, G. S. and A. A. Abul Soad. 2007. Fruit Characterization of

Pakistani Dates. The fourth symposium on date palm in Al-Hassa,

Saudi Arabia.

Nixon, R.W, 1951. Fruit thinning experiments with the Medjhool and

Barhee varieties of dates. Date Growers’ institute. Report 28: 14-17.

Pakistan Horticulture Development and Export Board. 2008-09. Dates

Marketing Strategy.

Pasha, S. A., A. Hussain and I. B. Gajani. 1972. Date Palm of Sindh.

Punjab Fruit. J. 33 (4): 9-14.

Planning and Development Department, Government of Sindh. 2006-07.

Popenoe, P. B. 1913. Date growing in the old world and the new. West

India Gardens. Altadena, California. 316.

Popenoe, P. B. 1973. The Date Palm: Henry field, ed, field research

projects. Coconut grove Miami, Florida. 247.

Rani, C. I., T. Kalaiselvi and V. Jegadeeswari. 2007. The Date Palm,

Horticulture College and Research Institute, Tamilnadu Agriculture

University, Coimbaore, India. Published in Science tech

Enterepreneur.


72

Saleem, S. A. 2004. Aspects of ripening of Dhakki dates (Phoenix

dactylifera L.) and Post-harvest stability employing hurdle

technology. Ph.D thesis, Food Technology department, Gomal

University, Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan.

Trade Development Authority of Pakistan. 2008. Export from Pakistan

product wise summary.

Zaid, A., P. F. de Wet., M. Djerbi and A. Oihabi, 2002. Diseases and

Pests of Date Palm. Date Palm Cultivation Chapter XII, Food and

Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Documents

dates in sindh pdf format.pdf