The Minister of Municipality and Environment, H E Eng. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Subaie during a visit to the Tissue Culture Laboratory of the Agricultural Research Department at the Ministry, yesterday.
The Minister of Municipality and Environment, H E Eng. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Subaie lauded the role of Tissue Culture Laboratory of the Agricultural Research Department for farming highquality, genetically rich palm offshoots to increase the quality and quantity of local dates’ production during his visit to the Laboratory, yesterday.
The Minister was briefed that the Agricultural Research Department at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) has registered a patent for producing offshoots through tissue culture under the name of (Enhanced nutritional mediums system for somatic fetuses in date palms). The patent which was registered under Qa/201703/00103 is under the process to receive an official certificate. The Minister was accompanied by Assistant Undersecretary for Agriculture and Fishery Sector at MME, Dr. Faleh bin Nasser Al Thani and Director of Agriculture Research Department, Hamad Sakit Al Shammari.
Al Shammari and Head of Tissue Culture Section, Amal Al Mahmoud briefed the Minister about the operation of the laboratory and its positive results. “Tissue Culture Laboratory aims at producing 150,000 seedlings of best quality palm trees for local farmers,” said Al Shammari.
He said that this is part of a major project of the MME represented by the Agriculture Research Department to provide seedlings to local farmers in the coming years. “About 188 offshoots of the distinct varieties of palm trees were added, which were brought from reliable farms for accurate propagation through tissue culture, according to the protocol approved by the Ministry in the process of reproduction,” said Al Shammari. Al Shammari said that the objective of tissue culture of date palm is to make the Ministry of Municipality and Environment a pioneer in date palm cultivation through tissue culture.
He said that the Agriculture Research Department has added some new types of palm trees which start bearing fruits earlier as well some other types which bear fruits late in a bid to stretch the dates’ harvesting season in the country. “Now we are working with the private sector to increase the production of palm tree offshoots to 50,000 in the third year of the project. We are also working under the future plan of the Ministry to make Qatar self-sufficient in date production,” said Al Shammari.
