Setting new standards

The UAE entered the Guinness Book of World Records this year as the world's leading cultivator of date palms. The date palm is one of the most important ornamental and fruit-producing trees in arid and semi-arid regions, supporting the stability of the desert ecosystem.

They generally endure several kinds of environmental stress such as drought, high irradiance, high temperatures and salt stress.

Dr. Mohammad Abdel Mohsen Salem, Assistant Dean of Scientific Research at the College of Food and Agriculture, United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) in Al Ain, said that to realise the long-term strategy to be the first source of date palms, there's a need to increase investments in date palm studies to sustain the date palm culture in the UAE. The College of Food and Agriculture and UAEU can play a major role in it, he added. It could include date palm mechanisation, such as operations performed on the palms throughout the year following harvest, including thinning, pollinating, pruning and bagging. More soil research is also needed, Dr. Salem said, "due to the vast majority of date palms that are planted in sandy and saline soils, which are extremely low quality, and [have] a tendency to leach and fix nutrients quickly. Thus, improved nutrient management is required to grow date palms successfully in sandy soils".

There is also a need to put more into tissue culture biotechnology, to increase cultivation, and there is a call to study the full genome sequence of UAE date palms. This would protect date palm cultivation against disease and pest epidemics, and "enhance date-palm breeding programmes," Dr. Salem said.

Dr. Hilal Humid Bin Saeed Al Ka'abi, Al Ain Municipality Director of Gardens and Leisure Parks, a member of the Khalifa International Date Palm Award's Council of Trustees (UAE) and member of the Palm Tree Friends Society's Board of Directors (UAE), said that the nation has 120 types of palm tree, while there are more than 2,500 in the world. Arab countries have more than 2,000 variations.

The most important types in the UAE are Lolo, Khesab, Khunaizi, Barhi, Al Halawi, Al Hasawi, Bu Ma'an, Al Jabery, Al Hilali, Dijla Noor, Al Khadrawi, Al Zahedi, Al Neghal, Raziz, Minaz, Nabtat Saif, Shala and Shishi, Dr. Ka'abi said.