According to the Pakistan Agricultural and research Council, 4.9 million tonnes of dates are grown per year in more than 40 countries around the world. Iran is the biggest in terms of production at 60 per cent, followed by Egypt at 12 per cent, Iraq at 11 per cent, Saudi Arabia at nine per cent with Pakistan at 7 per cent taking the fifth position in the world date production.
The total annual production of dates in Pakistan is about 0.54 million tons with contribution of at Sindh 0.28 million tonnes, Balochistan 0.175 million tonnes, NWFP 0.05 million tonnes and Punjab 0.039 million tonnes, respectively.
“It takes about a week before these dates turn into chuhara (dried hard dates) after which they are put in gunny bags and taken to the date market and sold,” explains Shaukat Ali.

The date variety predominantly found in Khairpur is called Aseel. 85 per cent of these dates are dried and turned into chuhara a majority of which is exported to India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

While a date properly ripened on the tree is of better quality than one picked prematurely, Markhand admits that “because there is always the imminent danger of sudden monsoon showers, the growers take them down prematurely, often three weeks before they are ripe and cure and process them into chuhara. Rain can completely destroy the fruit,” he says.
Date palm trees are spread over 98,000 hectares across Pakistan making it the fifth largest date producer in the world at 0.7million metric tonnes, with most orchards found in Balochistan. Yet, says Markhand, Sindh leads in production. He also explains that the tree is one of the most resilient plants and a rise in temperature or climate change will not be able to have any adverse affect on it, “not for another 200 years at least” he says confidently. But dates grow best where the temperatures are hot so that ripening period is short. The date palm tree, says Markhand, becomes fully fertile in nine years and bears fruit for over 80 years.
Source: www.dawn.com / Zofeen T. Ebrahim
Read full article: http://www.dawn.com/2011/07/26/the-golden-harvest-of-khairpur.html