FACTORS HAMPERING DATE PALM PRODUCTION IN THE PUNJAB: A CASE STUDY OF D.G. KHAN DISTRICT

This study was conducted to assess some of the factors hindering the production of dates in one of the major date-palm growing regions of the Punjab, Pakistan. Dera Ghazi Khan district was selected as case study area and a structured interview schedule was used to collect quantitative data from 120 date growers. The qualitative data were collected through in-depth interviews with the key informants. This paper also assesses the awareness of farmers about date palm production technology and, consequently, identifies training needs of date palm growers of Dera Ghazi Khan district regarding production technology of date palm. Awareness about variety, irrigation practices, fertilizer application, sucker transplantation and insect/pest of date-palm were selected as variables of production technology. The results revealed that farmers had very low level of knowledge about the production technology of date palm. The unawareness about production technology of the date palm was found as one of the major factors hindering the yield and ultimately profit for the date growers. The agricultural extension staff was found to be ineffective in dissemination of date palm technology and most of the respondents reported that they had received no information from agricultural extension staff regarding date palm production technology. There is an urgent need to train farmers about irrigation and fertilizer application, disease and pest management, sucker transplanting and processing of dates.