Book traces history of date palms

The Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research has released one of the most comprehensive books on the world's date palms, covering everything from the ancient history of the fruit tree to its modern cultivation and improvements through biotechnology.

The Date Palm - From Traditional Resource to Green Wealth has just been released in Abu Dhabi for worldwide distribution and has already been listed on amazon.com, the world's leading online bookstore.

With information on palm trading, differences between varieties, applications and disease control, the book is a collection of all the research papers presented at the International Date Palm Forum in Abu Dhabi in September 2002.

The book covers every aspect of scientific and traditional cultivation of date palms from the Atlantic Ocean across North Africa, to the deserts of Arabia and into the Indus Valley.

The forum was organised by the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research and attended by scholars and scientists from the Americas to Japan, and from Russia to Australia.

The book is divided into six sections, namely 'Archaeology and the Date Palm', 'Date Palm Production', 'The Date Palm in the United Arab Emirates', 'Date Palm Culture: Country Case Studies' and 'Storage, Marketing and International Cooperation'.

The book also contains about 200 illustrations and graphic tables.