Missan’s Palm Trees to increase to one million

MISSAN / IraqiNews.com: Southern Iraq’s Missan Province is planning to increase the number of its fruitful palm trees to one million, according to the Director Missan‘s Agriculture Department, Nasser Minati on Tuesday. “The Number of Missan‘s fruitful palm trees shall increase to one million, as part of the 10-year plan of Missan‘s Agriculture Department,” Minati told IraqiNews.com news agency. “The agricultural area, planted with palm trees in Missan at present reaches 12,316 donums, while the number of palm trees is 282,414,” he noted. The figures from Iraq’s Agriculture Ministry point out that the number of palm trees in Iraq had dropped to 9 million recently, compared to 33 million in the 1950s, whilst the number of palm dates’ packing plants had dropped to 6 plants, compared with 150 plants before 2003. Amara, the center of Missan Province, is 390 km to the south of Baghdad. SKH/SR 70