DOHA: Dates grown in public places are going waste without proper harvesting. Road sides and dividers are littered with fallen ripe dates as there is no proper collection being done.
Dates and date palms have always occupied a special position in the Arab and Islamic cultures. Apart from begin mentioned 23 times in the Holy Qur'an, dates have always been a staple diet for the people in the region.
Over years dates have become symbol of Arab and desert life. More than 90 percent of the global dates are exported from this region. Iraq alone has 40m date palms. A man plucking dates from a tree in a public place.
Qatar like any other Arab country has given needed attention to dates by growing date palm in public places. However, each year, thousands of dates are going wasted from these trees. Though the palms are taken care of by the municipalities by giving water, fertilizers and pesticides, the produce is not harvested properly. Even people rarely give attention to bunches of ripe dates hanging on almost all the major roads and public places.
"Huge quantities of dates are wasted each year without anyone being benefited from it," said Abdul Aziz Al Saeed. "Dates are God's gifts and a wealth which if exploited in the right manner can be fruitful. It can also be preserved for a long time. Dates palms are part of Arab heritage as it can adapt to high temperature, limited water availability and high saline conditions. Further more it has contains all the essential nutrition for the body."
Less than ten years ago, people used to park their vehicle by the road side and take the dates. Hence these dates rarely used to go wasted. Now people rarely care to look at these and hence leave the lots of dates fall on to the soil and go wasted.
It is rather surprising that this should happen in a country with many charitable organisations who distribute food to the needy both inside and outside Qatar. If all the dates in the public places are properly harvested, these organisations can reduce their expense on buying dates from the market.
People here might not know the value of each date that is going wasted. Outside this region dates can be extremely expensive either ripe or not. The fruit is highly nutritious that at one time, before wheat or rice became available, dates alone had helped to sustain life.
"Only a small number of labourers have been noticed taking benefit of these palms. Apart from that, the fruit ripens, falls and decay. It would be good if specific companies are assigned to do the harvesting job so that it does not go wasted. These sold at local markets thus serving as an income and saving it from being wasted. People are not sure if it is legal to pluck these fruits, they are worried about the morality and hence most of them abstain from taking the dates" said a Qatari.
By Huda N V
© The Peninsula 2009
