The Al-Abbas's (p) Holy Shrine begins planting 600 rare palm seedlings as part of the Al-Saqi agricultural project in Karbala

The Al-Abbas's (p) Holy Shrine has begun planting 600 rare palm seedlings as part of the Al-Saqi Agricultural Project in the Karbala desert.

The technical assistant for the project, Engineer Alaa Medhat, said, "Today we started planting 600 rare palm seedlings over an area of 25 dunams as part of the Al-Saqi agricultural project, which is supervised by the Engineering Projects Department at the Holy Shrine. These seedlings are part of the project's efforts to cultivate, preserve, and propagate rare palm varieties."

He added that the total area of the project is 11,000 dunams, and it includes more than 40,000 palm trees distributed over more than 100 varieties of local and imported Arab palm trees, pointing out that the foundation of the project is based on planting and propagating palm varieties, which contributes to preserving the varietal diversity of palm trees.

Medhat explained that the seedlings planted today are characterized by the quality of their pollen and their effectiveness in pollinating palm trees, which contributes to improving fruit set and enhancing fertilization efficiency, in addition to supporting production quality and obtaining uniform fruits in terms of size and characteristics. This makes them one of the important varieties in palm propagation and date production programs.

He pointed out that the project relies on well water for irrigating the palm trees, as the water is extracted and used in the drip irrigation process, with solar energy being used to operate the water pumps and extract the water from the wells.

He explained that the project used a number of modern and advanced technologies, in line with the nature of the challenges facing Iraq, particularly those related to electricity and energy sources. He pointed out that the project management decided to rely on clean energy to generate the electrical power needed for irrigation and other tasks required by the project.

The Al-Saqi Agricultural Project is one of the initiatives adopted by the Al-Abbas's (p) Holy Shrine to support the agricultural sector in Iraq, particularly in Karbala Governorate, by reviving palm cultivation, expanding its production, and preserving the diversity of its varieties, which contributes to enhancing local production and supporting the Iraqi market.