Date palm cultivation in the Republic of India

With average imports of more than 310,000 metric t each year, India is the world’s largest dates importer and constitutes nearly 30% of total global imports. Iraq, UAE, Islamic Republic of Iran and Pakistan are the major date suppliers to India. With a population of 1.4 billion, India has tremendous market potential for dates, which is evident from the increasing imports trend. For its contribution towards establishing a modern and scientific date industry in India, Atul has been awarded the Khalifa International Date Palm Award 2009, Siemens Ecovatives Award 2010, Peacock Eco Innovative Award 2014, Make in India Award 2015 and Rashtra Vibhushan Award 2018. Atul has contributed in providing high quality tissue culture date palm planting material over more than 8,000 acres in India. With the support of the Indian government, and continued good performance of high-quality tissue culture date palms, Indian farmers of hot and arid climatic zones, especially in Jaisalmer, Barmer and other districts of western Rajasthan are being encouraged to cultivate the ‘Mejhoul’ cultivar.