Development of sustainable date palm production systems in the GCC: Public-private-producer partnerships for a vibrant date palm industry and market

Abstract

The Sustainable Development of Date Palm (DP) Production Systems in the GCC Countries project focuses on producing knowledge and practices to improve date palm production. In 2006, the project started its 3rd phase in 2018 and successfully built upon the achievements and improved technologies developed in partner countries over the past 15 years. The project is focused on the preservation and utilization of effective dryland resources to generate water-saving cropping techniques, integrated pest management, and mechanization to bring about cost-effectiveness in the DP production, industry, and marketing systems. Through the project, the national project partners explored, tested, and documented diverse technologies and systems truly revolutionizing water productivity, DP pollination, and quality date production in the region and beyond. These included: new subsurface irrigation systems, soil fertility enhancement using mycorrhiza, liquid pollination, bunch ventilation techniques, polycarbonate drying chambers, biotech guided biodiversity conservation, Trichogramma production, and use in biological control, and mass inventory of DP pests and natural enemies. Each of these technologies has a standalone impact when applied individually and cumulative impacts as a package. The development of relevant and revolutionizing technologies under extreme water scarcity, poor soil, and climate change triggered abiotic and biotic stresses are important and part of what makes this project special. What makes this project unique is its innovative cross-institutional and national boundary R&D integration, the inbuilt national partner ownership fostering effective agriculture innovation, cross-learning, and instant up-and-out scaling of technologies. The public-private-producer-partnership (PPPP) model adopted proved to be a solid foundation to develop a vibrant date palm industry and market in the region. The development and popularization of date drying chambers in Oman and UAE is an excellent example of PPPP. The national and international R4D institutions, manufacturing companies, and producers actively participated in the designing, testing, demonstration, documentation of the project, ensuring policymaker buy-in and producer adoption (with and without government subsidy). This project successfully promoted technology for subsurface irrigation reducing water use by 40% in Oman, 37% in Saudi Arabia, and 35% in Qatar. The Al-Foah Organic Farming Company in UAE adopted subsurface irrigation for 7000 date palms, with 41% water saving. The use of fertigation by hydraulic injectors in UAE showed 42% and 75% of fruit weight increase in Medjhool and Sukary cultivars. The benefits of integrated pest management with Abamectin, Sulphur, and Matrine biopesticides on Dust Mite and Lesser Date Moth and the use of Trichogramma with a capacity to feed on over 200 insects have also been demonstrated. Sixty DP cultivars in the GCC countries have been fingerprinted, 947 technical staff and farmers benefited from capacity building programs and 119 publications produced. Building on these successes, Phase 3 (2020-2022) focuses on: (i) consolidating and scaling the proven technologies within and beyond the region; (ii) advancing research on soil fertility through composting and recycling of DP waste; and (iii) advancing digital augmentation of advisory services for a sustainable and resilient DP industry in the region.