About 42 million date palms were planted in the UAE, as part of continual efforts to increase productivity in order to make better use of the date palm industry and to produce an agricultural leap that will change the face of the desert.

The Fourth International Date Palm Conference is one of a a series of international conferences organised by UAE during the last 11 years, to boost date palm cultivation.

Date palm scientists, experts, and senior official! s from around the world will be able to exchange their know-how and experiences.

Nearly 300 participants from 40 countries and several international organisations have already confirmed their participation in the conference. Interesting abstracts are being submitted by participants from various countries.

The objective of the conference is to provide an opportunity for updating scientific information on different aspects of the date palm production chain from farm to consumers. It is also a forum to compare the recent experiences in the UAE with those of other date growing countries. Above all it is to foster international technical cooperation on different aspects of date palm production chain.

The theme of the conference is to explore new dimensions and challenges for sustainable date palm production.

The conference has been slated to start from March 15 at the Emirates Palace Hotel, Abu Dhabi.

The main subjects that will come under debate will be as follows: Current Status of Date Palm Cultivation in the World; UAE date palm cultivation experience; Impacts of date culture on the environment and desertification control; Date Palm Research and Development; Molecular and genetic engineering; Germplasm and propagation; Improved date palm cultural practices; Date palm protection - focus will be on the most important diseases, pests and major diseases of date palm; and physiological disorders.

The event will also see the presentation of the Khalifa International Date Palm Award.

UAE also earned a Guinness Book Award for planting the most number of date palms last year.-TradeArabia News Service