ISLAMABAD: The federal government will plant 159 million saplings across the country over the next three months.

The target was approved at an inter-provincial meeting held at the ministry of climate change on Friday. Provincial forest departments and federal ministries and departments concerned will participate in the drive.

Inspector General of Forest Pakistan Syed Mehmood Nasir said that around 123m saplings would be planted by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa forest department. Punjab will follow with 18.1m saplings, Sindh with 7.1m and Balochistan with 1.5m saplings. Azad Jammu and Kashmir government will plant 1.3m saplings, Gilgit-Baltistan 1.1m and authorities in Federally Administered Tribal Areas has set a target of 4m saplings.

The Capital Development Authority will plant 300,000 saplings, National Highway Authority 125,000, Ministry of Defence 700,000, Heavy Industry Taxila 5,000, Pakistan Ordnance Factory 15,000, Pakistan Tobacco Company 1.5m and IUCN 250,000 saplings.

The inspector-general informed the meeting that 32.5m saplings had been planted across the country during the last monsoon season, of which 72 per cent had survived.

Climate Change Secretary Arif Ahmed Khan, quoting the Pakistan Meteorological Department, said that good rainfall was expected in spring.

The meeting discussed revival of the Pakistan Forest Institute (PFI) in Peshawar, which houses the country’s top forest scientists, researchers and experts. The institute is currently under the control of the provincial government.

OLIVE TREES: The Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) will plant olive trees on 50,000 acres of land by 2019.

Acting PARC chairman and director general of National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC), Dr Muhammad Azeem Khan, while chairing a meeting on the project, said that olive saplings had been planted on around 7,166 acres of land in Punjab, KP, Fata and Balochistan. Another 700,000 will be planted over the next two months.

According to PARC’s national project director (olive), Dr Nasir Mahmood Cheema, the council will plant saplings on 8,000 acres by the end of this year. The project, scheduled to complete in five years, will generate 14m litres of oil, worth approximately Rs28 billion.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2016