Damascus, (SANA)-Syria is one of the oldest producers of pistachio in the world. It comes first in producing pistachio among the Arab countries while it ranks fourth in producing it on the international level. About 23 thousand farmers depend on cultivating pistachio trees to earn their income. They invest one percent of the arable lands in Syria, and 6 percent of the lands planted with fruit trees.

According to estimates of the Syrian Ministry of agriculture for 2008, pistachio is planted over an area of 6 thousand hectares, 56 hectares of which are irrigated lands while the other hectares are unwatered lands.

There are more than 25 species of pistachio trees in Syria .The number of the prolific pistachio trees amounted to 9, 417 trees in 2008 out of 9,417 trees, producing 52, 556 thousand tons of pistachio nuts.

According to the estimates of Pistachio Office at the Ministry of Agriculture, pistachio production hit 62 thousand tons in 2009.

Central Syrian Hama Province comes first among the Syrian provinces in producing pistachio while northern Syrian Aleppo Province comes second and the Northern Province of Idleb ranks third.

Pistachio trees depend mainly on rainfalls and they don't need to be irrigated in summer except in times of drought. They approximately require an average of rainfalls ranges between 200 to 400 millimeters.

Planting pistachio in Syria has developed during the last few years due to the measures taken by the Ministry of Agriculture and the integrated combating of tree pests.

After the steps taken by the Ministry, the production of each tree hit 8 kilograms annually. Pistachio nuts have a nutritional value. They are used for making fragrance and many kinds of desserts, candies and ice cream.
Ruaa AL-Jazaeri / Mazen
From sana.sy