Dates in Sindh: Facts and Figures Mushtaque Ahmed Jatoi, Zahida Markhand and Najamuddin Solangi Date Palm Research Institute, Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur, Sindh (mushtaqjatoi@gmail.com and egypak06@gmail.com) HISTORY Date palm is one of the oldest plants cultivated by man and its origin is thought to be Mesopotamia (Iraq), Gulf region or Indus Civilization. The presence of date fruits in the excavation of Moen-jo-Daro storage vases indicates the presence of date palm cultivation in Sindh as early as 2000 B.C (Jandan, 1974). Whereas, silicified seeds or mineralized date stones of 6000 B.C have been tested from Mehargarh IB and IIB sites of Pakistan (Costantini, 1985). On the other hand some scholars believed that date palm have been brought to the Indo-Pak subcontinent by Alexander the great (Pasha et al., 1972 and Nixon, 1951). While it is a general concept among scholars that dates were probably introduced in Sindh by Forces of Mohammed Bin Qasim in 712 A.D. Because, since the dawn of ancient history, the Date Palm has been an important source of food for the Arabian Peninsula (Popenoe, 1913). They threw date seeds at camping places during wars from which date palm grew and flourished in the Indus valley. GENERAL DESCRIPTION Date palm belongs to family Arecaceae, is a monocot, perennial plant extensively cultivated for its edible sweet fruit. The fruit is a drupe known as a date. The term Phoenix dactylifera L. was given by Carolus Linnaeus in his binomial nomenclature in 1753. The term Dactylifera is derived from the Greek word “Dactylor” which means “finger”. Date palm being a dioecious plant is conventionally propagated through its offshoots because propagation through its seeds will not bring the true to type progeny of Date Palm. However Plant tissue culture is a new and fast growing method for propagation of date palm and is practicing in many date palm growing regions, including Sindh, where a well established institute namely “Date Palm Research Institute, Khairpur” is working on various aspects of date palm including its propagation through plant tissue culture. ! Date Palm likes a warm climate where summers are considerably longer than winters. As per an Arabic saying the date palm should be grown with its feet in running water and its head in fire. Date Palm prefers a rainfall of 200 to 250 mm; late rains during flowering and ripening periods are harmful for date palm. Date palm requires sandy loam and clayey loam soils and can tolerate soils with high levels of salts up to 22,000 parts per million (Gepts, 2002). Date Palm may reach an age of 100-150 years and height of 100120 feet or 30 m (Gepts, 2002). Normally the useful age limit is less and consequently the height will not be more than 15-20 m maximum before it will cut down because of declining yield and increasing difficulty and danger to reach the crown during pollination, bunch management and harvesting. Dates are naturally wind pollinated in both traditional oasis and horticulture but in the modern commercial orchards they are entirely pollinated manually. Natural pollination occurs with about an equal number of male and female plants. However, with assistance, male flowers from a single tree can be used to pollinate 40 to 50 female date palms (Rani et al., 2007).The main stages in the date palm life cycle are: • Suitable age of suckers for transplanting 2-3 years • Time to start bearing fruits 4-5 years • Time to full production 6-8 years • Full productivity but no more offshoots formation • Normal economic bearing life 50 years • Declining fruit yields after 50 years • Time of transplanting • Time of flowering • Time of harvest 30-35 years Whole year, specially May to July Feb to March July to Oct The dates in one growing season take 200-210 days from pollination to full fruit maturation (Saleem, 2004). According to Al-Hooti et al., (1997) fruit maturation undergoes through four major stages, identified by their Arabic names as: 1. Kimri: Small green, hard texture, non edible with high moisture approximately 80%. !" 2. Khalal (Doka stage): Bright yellow or red in color, hard and crisp, physiologically mature, moisture contents 50-85%. 3. Rutab (Dang stage): Partially browned and softened at the tip and reduced moisture contents to 30-35%. 4. Tamar (Pind or Chuhhara stage): Color from Amber to dark brown, texture from soft pliable to firm, moisture content reduced below 25% down to 10% and less. IMPORTANCE Date fruits being sweet and most nutritious supplying 2500-3000 Calories/kg (Amin, 2007) consumed as a staple food because the sugar content of ripe dates is about 80%; the remainder consists of protein, fat and mineral products including copper, sulphur, iron, magnesium and fluoric acid. Dates are high in fiber and an excellent source of potassium. Date palm with its unique characteristics can truly be called the “tree of life “ because date palm has been so closely connected with the survival and well being of humans living in hot and arid environments. Without the existence of the date palm, expansion of human race into the hot and barren part of the ancient world would have been much more restricted. Every part of the date palm tree has its uses. The wood and leaves provide timber and fabric for houses and fences. The leaves are used for making ropes, fans, mats, hats, cord, baskets, crates and furniture. Bases of the leaves and the fruit stalks are used as fuel. The fruit yields food products such as date vinegar, date chutney or sweet pickle, date paste for bakery products etc. The Date palm has religious values as well as cultural importance in all major religions of the world. It is important in ceremonies of Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Hinduism. The reason for this is mainly the influence of Prophet Ibrahim, whose love for dates and date palm has left a lasting influence on these religions. According to the Holy Book Qur'an, dates have always been considered beneficial to mothers. When Mary gave birth to the Prophet Jesus (may peace be upon Him) under a palm tree, she heard a voice telling her: "Shake the trunk of the palm tree towards thee: it will drop fresh, ripe dates upon thee. Eat, then, and ! drink, and let thine eye be gladdened!" (Qur'an 19:25-26). There are over 20 references to date and date palms in the Holy Quran. The Holy Prophet (Peace be Upon Him) also highlighted the importance of dates and date palms on many occasions. Such as: There is among trees one that is pre-eminently blessed, as is the Muslim among men; it is the date palm" and “Homes without dates is as good as a home without food”. DATE PALM DISEASES Diseases in date palm may be either biotic or abiotic. Biotic diseases are caused by pathogens like fungi and bacteria and insects like Red Palm Weevil and Fruit stalk borer etc. Both pathogens and insects are responsible for great damage to date palm in Sindh. Abiotic diseases are caused by Physiological disorders such as, too low or too high temperature, lack or excess of soil moisture, lack or excess of light, lack of oxygen, air pollution, nutrient deficiencies, toxicities of pesticides etc. Some palms show resistance to their biotic pathogens and to conditions which cause abiotic diseases but all date palms are susceptible to mismanagement of water, the extremes of pruning and poor planting practices. BIOTIC DISEASES Biotic diseases are caused by pathogens and are usually fungal in etiology, the most common fungal diseases of Date Palm in Sindh are: • Sudden decline of date palm (drying) in Sindh caused by soil borne fungi Fusarium spp. • Grapholia leaf spot caused by Grapholia phoenicis. • Leaf spot of Date Palm caused by Mycosphaerella spp. • Inflorescence rot of Date Palm caused by Mauginiella scaettae. • Fruit rot of Date Palm caused by Aspergilus spp. • Diplodia disease of date palm caused by Diplodia phoenicum. While the Red Palm Weevil or Indian Palm Weevil, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus is also damaging the date crop in Sindh. It bores into the stem from the exposed soft tissues and entire crown to wither and die Whereas Lesser Date Moth (Batrachedra amydraula Meyrick) and Fruit Stalk Borer (Oryctes elegans Prell) are also causing a great damage to date palm. !# ABIOTIC DISEASES Abiotic diseases are caused by re-occurring environmental conditions that compromise the long-term growth and development of the palm. Some of them described by Zaid et al., (2002) are given below: Crosscuts A crosscut is a physiological disorder of fruit stalks and fronds. Crosscuts or V-cuts are clean breaks in the tissues of the fruit stalk bases and on fronds. It consists of a slight to deep notch, similar to a cut artificially done by a knife. Fruits born on strands in line with the break wither and fail to mature properly. Crosscuts result from an anatomical defect in the fruit stalks and fronds involving internal, sterile cavities leading to mechanical breaks during elongation of the stalk or the fronds. Leaf Apical Drying This is not a disease but a physiological reaction to transplantation of adult palms (injury of their root system). All palms with these symptoms recover within two to three years after their transplanting. Frost Damage When temperature falls below 0°C, it causes serious metabolic disorders with some injury to date palm leaves characterized by a partial or total desiccation. Water of protoplasma freezes after coming out from the cells. During defrost, water invaded inter-cellular spaces and affected leaves turn brown and desiccated. The severity of damage is related to the intensity and duration of frost. Frost injury to the date palm groves is not a direct loss of fruit on the palm but freezing produces loss of leaves so that the palm cannot support and mature the fruit crop following year. DATE PALM VARIETIES Date varieties have been developed by thousands of years of selection of seedlings and only those possessing desirable characteristics have been propagated. Date palm counts for more than 3000 varieties all around the world. There are about 400 in Iran, 370 in Iraq, 250 in Tunisia, 244 in Morocco, as well as many additional varieties in the other major date growing countries (Rani et al., 2007). Whereas Popenoe listed 1,500 descriptions of the fruit and palm, as well as the history and significance of the most important, country by country, in his book, The Date Palm (written in 1924 but published in 1973). !$ There are three main cultivar groups of dates e.g. soft, semi-dry and dry. The type of fruit depends on the glucose, fructose and sucrose content. In soft dates about 80 percent of the dry matter is invert sugars (mixture of equal parts of glucose and fructose), while in semi-dry dates, about 40 percent of the dry matter is invert sugars and forty percent is sucrose. In dry dates, about 20 to 40 percent of the dry matter is invert sugars and 40 to 60 percent is sucrose (Bender and Bender, 2005). There are more than 300 varieties of dates in Khairpur, Sindh, Pakistan and this is the biodiversity centre of dates (Markhand and Abul Soad, 2007 and Mahar, 2007). Province wise Elite date varieties of Pakistan are: Sindh: Aseel, Karbalian, Fasli, Dedhi, Kupro, Gajjar, Kachoo wari, Began, Mithri, Bhedir, Khar, Autaqin and Asul khurmo. Punjab: Zahidi, Hilawi, Khudravi and Shamran. Baluchistan: Muzawati, Begum Jangi, Shakri, Halini, Sabzo, Hussaini, Aab-e-dandan, Jaan Swore, Kehraba and Rabai. NWFP: Dhakki and Gulistan. ASEEL VARIETY The Aseel variety is the most important commercial variety of Pakistan. This is a predominant variety of Khairpur. It is an excellent semi-dry variety with suitable fruit size (4.3 cm in length and 2.5 cm in diameter), oblong, narrow near the base and widest in the middle. The fruit of this variety is consumed at Rutab (Dang) and Tamr stage. Aseel has sweet taste without scorch in the throat. This is very important character for the excellent varieties. The environmental conditions and soil types play an important role in the properties of this variety's fruit. Aseel fruit produced from palms grown in Eastern part of district (near to small mountain range) has low moisture content. Consequently, the shelf life of this fruit is longer than the fruit of the same variety in the rest of district. The fruit of Aseel variety cannot be eaten at Khalal stage due to the high percentage of tannins. However, many growers harvest Aseel crop at khalal stage and boil fruit to make "Chuhara". Otherwise, whole of the crop will be destroyed and lost if there is monsoon rain (Markhand and Abul Soad, 2007). ! DATES PRODUCTION Dates are cultivated mainly in warmer regions of Asia and Africa. Some important date growing countries are Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Algeria, Sudan, Libya, and Tunisia. It is also grown in some parts of Europe (Italy, Spain) and California (USA). Due to soil and seasons, Pakistan is an ideal place for date palm cultivation. The area under cultivation of date palm is 90100 hectares with production of 600000 tons of dates annually and is fourth largest producer of dates in the world after Egypt, Iran and Saudi Arabia. As per figures of Federal Bureau of Statistics of Pakistan (2007-08), year wise area and production of Dates of Pakistan is given in “000” thousands of hectares and production in tons. 2004-05 81.7 622.1 2005-06 82.0 2006-07 496.6 84.7 426.3 2007-08 90.1 557.5 Source: Federal Bureau of Statistics of Pakistan, 2007-08. Dates are growing in all four provinces of Pakistan. The main dates producing areas of Pakistan are Turbat and Panjgoor (Baluchistan), Khairpur and Sukkur (Sindh), Muzaffar Garh, Jhang, Multan and D.G Khan (Punjab) and D.I. Khan (NWFP). It is evident from the area that the trend of date palm cultivation is increasing. Comparison of production and area of dates in Pakistan and Sindh and its share is given below: 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 Source: Planning and Development Department, Government of Sindh. !! Date Palm is an important crop of Sindh, mainly growing in Khairpur and Sukkur districts. Almost 85% of the Sindh dates produced only in Khairpur. DATES IMPORT Pakistan imports dates worth around $4.45 million annually. This import is made in spite of domestic production of over 600000 tons a year. When Ramazan will precede dates harvesting season, import of this fruit will increase manifold (Jalbani, 2009). According to FAOSTAT (2007) the major importers of dates are: ! " #$$$ % ! " %& 1 India 253341 72359 286 2 Morocco 50473 43524 862 3 France 27439 66741 2432 4 Russia 22375 13628 609 5 Pakistan 19777 5250 265 6 Bangladesh 18546 5584 301 7 Indonesia 15549 12055 775 8 Malaysia 15346 20974 1367 9 U.K 14357 34564 2407 10 Yemen 13136 6462 492 11 Turkey 13092 6874 525 12 U.A.E 12266 14654 1195 13 Syria 11274 4979 442 14 Niger 11020 1286 117 15 Germany 10790 29768 2759 16 USA 8646 11308 1308 17 Canada 8605 16406 1907 18 Jordan 8534 7242 849 19 Italy 7230 20299 2808 20 Spain 7152 21803 3049 Source: FAO Statistics, 2007. !% DATES EXPORT Date palm is the third commercial fruit crop of Pakistan after Citrus and Mango (Pakistan Horticulture Development and Export Board). The export of dates is mainly occurring from Khairpur and Turbat districts of Pakistan. Pakistan appeared on the map of date exporting countries of the world in the beginning of 1980s when Iran and Iraq went to war and now became the second largest exporter of this fruit in the world (FAOSTAT, 2007). According to FAOSTAT (2007) world Dates export is as under: "' ! " #$$$ % ! " %& 1 Iran 242092 83083 343 2 Pakistan 104090 38271 368 3 Tunisia 68856 164759 2393 4 Saudi Arabia 48762 40529 831 5 U.A.E 38691 19988 517 6 Iraq 37063 9532 257 7 Algeria 25039 23140 924 8 France 10470 29524 2820 9 Israel 9513 52592 5528 10 Oman 9368 5687 607 11 Egypt 4704 3014 641 12 Mexico 3891 7363 1892 13 USA 3259 18863 5788 14 Jordan 2806 2924 1042 15 Germany 2743 10246 3735 16 Niger 1823 390 214 17 Netherlands 1775 7904 4453 18 Turkey 1366 1339 980 19 Malaysia 925 721 779 20 Singapore 904 1445 1598 Source: FAO Statistics, 2007. ! Pakistan dates export consists of fresh and dried dates. As per figures of Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP), the year wise export of fresh and dried dates of Pakistan is as under: " ( )$$*+$, )$$,+$- )$$-+$. )$$.+$/ Fresh Dates `000` Kg 4023 6767 2576 2175 Dried Dates `000` Kg 85326 97323 31143 36760 Source: Trade Development Authority of Pakistan. As per figures of TDAP (2007-08) the existing export of Pakistani dates (fresh and dry) to selected markets of the world is: 0 0 "' 1 " 2 " "' 2 "2 2 1 India 168 85135 2 USA 1079 667 3 U.K 562 378 4 Bangladesh 1057 522 5 Canada 418 395 6 Germany 558 458 7 Denmark 237 61 8 Malaysia 44 ---- 9 South Africa 420 43 10 Sri Lanka 48 6 11 Japan ------- 281 12 U.A.E ------- 194 13 Saudi Arabia ------- 101 14 China ------- 34 15 Nepal ------- 32 16 Australia ------- 25 Source: Trade Development Authority of Pakistan. ! " The date markets of Khairpur and Sukkur export about 80-90% of dried dates (Chuhara) to India, where being used in religious activities. But the tension between India and Pakistan after Mumbai blast has affected export of dried dates to India. Thus we are supposed to find out new markets for our dates or it will be a great loss. RECOMMENDATIONS Pakistan has vast potential of export dates but efforts are required to apply post-harvest management and processing techniques to qualify the International standards. For better production and yield of dates there is a need of extensive research so that quality could match with international requirements of sanitary and phyto-sanitary (SPS) measures; selection of disease-free plants; screening out of bad varieties, pre and post-harvest management; processing and behavioral trainings of the staff for their role in the system; integrated supply chain (from farm to fork) for handling, processing, packing, marketing and export of dates and date products. Other measures include setting up of advanced dates processing and preservation units in date growing areas, standardized packaging and presentation, national branding and market diversification and establishment of modern marketing system. REFERENCES Al-Hooti, S., J. S. Sidhu and H. Qabazard. 1997. Physico Chemical characteristics of five date fruit cultivars grown in United Arab Emirates. Plant food for Human nutrition. Vol. 50 (2): 101-113. Amin, M., S. Zafar and A. Y. Anjum. 2007. Potential of dates export. Daily Dawn. May 07. Bender, D. A. and A. E. Bender. 2005. A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition. New York: Oxford University Press. Costantini, L. 1985. Considerazioni su alcuni reperti di palma da dattero e sul centro di origine e l'area du coltivazione della Phoenix dactylifera L. In: G. Gnoli and L. Lanciotti (eds.), Orientalia Josephi Tucci Memoriae Dicata: Rome: Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Esremo Oriente, Serie Orientale Roma 56 (1): 209-217. Federal Bureau of Statistics, Pakistan, 2007-08. % Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Statistics. 2007. Gepts, P. 2002. The crop of the day: The Date, Phoenix dactylifera, UC Davis Department of plant sciences, Davis, CA, USA. Jalbani, M. E. 2009. Issues in date production and exports. Daily Dawn. September 07. Jandan, D. M. 1974. Studies of some characters of important varieties of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) grown in Khairpur. M.Sc Thesis, University of Sindh, Jamshoro. Mahar, A.Q. 2007. Post-harvest studies of different varieties of Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) fruits, their protection, identification, processing and preservation at district Khairpur, Sindh, Pakistan. Ph.D Thesis, Date Palm Research Institute, Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur, Sindh, Pakistan. Markhand, G. S. and A. A. Abul Soad. 2007. Fruit Characterization of Pakistani Dates. The fourth symposium on date palm in Al-Hassa, Saudi Arabia. Nixon, R.W, 1951. Fruit thinning experiments with the Medjhool and Barhee varieties of dates. Date Growers’ institute. Report 28: 14-17. Pakistan Horticulture Development and Export Board. 2008-09. Dates Marketing Strategy. Pasha, S. A., A. Hussain and I. B. Gajani. 1972. Date Palm of Sindh. Punjab Fruit. J. 33 (4): 9-14. Planning and Development Department, Government of Sindh. 2006-07. Popenoe, P. B. 1913. Date growing in the old world and the new. West India Gardens. Altadena, California. 316. Popenoe, P. B. 1973. The Date Palm: Henry field, ed, field research projects. Coconut grove Miami, Florida. 247. Rani, C. I., T. Kalaiselvi and V. Jegadeeswari. 2007. The Date Palm, Horticulture College and Research Institute, Tamilnadu Agriculture University, Coimbaore, India. Published in Science tech Enterepreneur. %" Saleem, S. A. 2004. Aspects of ripening of Dhakki dates (Phoenix dactylifera L.) and Post-harvest stability employing hurdle technology. Ph.D thesis, Food Technology department, Gomal University, Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan. Trade Development Authority of Pakistan. 2008. Export from Pakistan product wise summary. Zaid, A., P. F. de Wet., M. Djerbi and A. Oihabi, 2002. Diseases and Pests of Date Palm. Date Palm Cultivation Chapter XII, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. %