Innovative Pollination Methods
Strategy: develop efficient pollination
Used in conjunction with natural pollination methods, farmers employ technological pollination to ensure pollination success and increase yield.
Diverse Inter-Cropping Zone
Strategy: integrated agriculture + building healthy soils
Leverage biodiversity to build healthy soils, crop resiliency, and farmer resiliency. Utilize crop rotation to build healthy soil while growing economically viable food.
Rotational Livestock Grazing
Strategy: integrated agriculture + building healthy soils
Livestock create manure that nourishes the soil through microbes that help plants grow.
Healthy Self-Sustaining Soil
Strategy: integrated agriculture + building healthy soils
Biodiversity of plants, compost and organic matter, and animal and green manure create soil teeming with microbes that increase plant resiliency, beneficial nematodes, mycorrhiza, and rhizobia.
Innovative Pollination Methods
Strategy: develop efficient pollination
Used in conjunction with natural pollination methods, farmers employ technological pollination to ensure pollination success and increase yield.
Diverse Inter-Cropping Zone
Strategy: integrated agriculture + building healthy soils
Leverage biodiversity to build healthy soils, crop resiliency, and farmer resiliency. Utilize crop rotation to build healthy soil while growing economically viable food.
Rotational Livestock Grazing
Strategy: integrated agriculture + building healthy soils
Livestock create manure that nourishes the soil through microbes that help plants grow.
Healthy Self-Sustaining Soil
Strategy: integrated agriculture + building healthy soils
Biodiversity of plants, compost and organic matter, and animal and green manure create soil teeming with microbes that increase plant resiliency, beneficial nematodes, mycorrhiza, and rhizobia.
Sustainably Enhancing Saudi Arabia Date Palm Production
Transforming monoculture palm production into a biodiverse, resilient, and self-sustaining ecosystem through advanced research
Transforming
Definition from Oxford Languages
mon·o·cul·ture
noun
the cultivation of a single crop in a given area
palm production into a
Definition from Oxford Languages
bi·o·di·verse
adjective
the variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem
,
Definition from Oxford Languages
re·sil·ient
adjective
to be able to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions
, and
Definition from Oxford Languages
self-sus·tain·ing
adjective
able to continue in a healthy state without outside assistance
ecosystem through advanced research
Strategies
Atlas of KSA date palm varieties
This will include photos, chemical and physical analysis in various stages of growth, and DNA fingerprinting of different types of date.
- Reference database of varieties/voucher specimens (GPS coordinates, RIFD tagged trees)
- DNA profile and genetic fingerprinting > low cost rapid genetic typing of any date palm tree.
- Metabolomic and chemical profile of varieties at different stages of growth
Implement integrated agriculture practices
Advanced research for organic farming that utilizes intercropping in palm groves to create a biodiverse ecosystem.
- Intercropping in palm groves
- Research to develop the intercropping in palm groves by testing various intercropping systems to determine economic value, labor and input requirements
- Impact and sustainability on the date palm agroecosystem
- Traditional oasis intercropping with vegetable production
- High-value, water-use efficient fruit crops such as dragon fruit
Cultivate efficient and practical water use
Combining ancient date palm oasis watering traditions with modern irrigation practices to maximize productivity while minimizing water use.
- Applied research on water requirements of the date palm to achieve the highest overall productivity
- Applied research to economically reduce the salinity of water irrigation
- Innovate efficient water-use irrigation practices
Maintain and build healthy soils
Biodiversity, compost and organic matter, rotational livestock grazing, and earthworks create an agroecosystem that nourishes fertile living soil.
- Advanced research to improve agricultural soil properties as for pH, salinity and soil fertility
- Use sustainable agriculture practices that require minimal energy (human, oil, machinery, time) input for maximal energy output (fruit, fibers, materials)
- Multi-cultural practices based on farming date palm as an ecosystem
Develop efficient pollination strategies
Technological pollination to ensure a consistently high yield.
- Applied research on developed, modern and innovative pollination methods
- Developing methods of extracting and preparing pollen
Date palm breeding
Increasing the productivity, quality, and selection of male and female palms through selective breeding.
- Reduce the unfertilized and unripe low cost types of dates. Improve color characteristics for low cost types of dates. Improve the size and quantity for low cost types of dates
- Research to develop the selection of male and female palms
- Development of training population for who-genomic prediction models (genomic selection)
- Targeted crosses between identified female varieties and male trees with establishment of breeding populations
- Selection of superior germplasm for salinity tolerance
- Testing and development of interspecific hybrids
Sustainable Date Palm Production
High Quality Dates
Genetics
Integrated Agriculture
Male — Pollen
Female — Fruit
Water
Soil
Pollen viability
Pollen Extraction
Long + Short Term Storage
Pollination Method
Sustainable Date Production
Irrigation Method
Sustainably Sourced + Used
Low Salinity, Clean Water
Optimized Grazing
Plant Diversity Intercropping
Beneficial Insects
High Quality Dates
Genetics
Integrated Agriculture
Male — Pollen
Female — Fruit
Water
Soil
Pollen viability
Pollen Extraction
Long + Short Term Storage
Pollination Method
Sustainable Date Production
Irrigation Method
Sustainably Sourced + Used
Low Salinity, Clean Water
Plant Diversity Intercropping
Optimized Grazing
Our mission
Sustainably enhance date palm production and quality in KSA while maximizing resource use efficiency
- Establish an atlas, and database for date palm varieties in KSA
- Study and characterize male tress in KSA and develop pollen banks in the key production regions to provide sustainable pollen sources to the growers.
- Develop date palm populations that can be used to study and improve currently grown verities in KSA.
- Developing an integrated strategy to integrate several field crops into date palm tree production farms to maximize the use of available agricultural resources.
- Develop preventive measures to reduce soil salinization problems and improve WUE.
- Develop methods to utilize date palm tree waste and convert it into valuable economical products.
- Develop new food and industrial products from date.