Page 389 - Bahrain Gov annual reports(V)_Neat

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AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT

By A. W. Van-Ollenbach, Director of Agriculture.
Introduction. The year 1956 was a comparatively uneventful year as far as Agriculture
in Bahrain was concerned.
Low rainfall, high summer temperatures and prolonged dust storms in May and June
tended to depress plant growth during the summer and increased the incidence of pests.
However, temperatures fell appreciably towards the end of October and conditions proved
to be ideal for the production of vegetables.
The number of growers who purchased tested disease resistant seed from the Department
increased appreciably and the improvement in the type and quality of vegetables on sale in the
market was very noticeable.
Although growers obtained, slightly better prices for their produce, marketing conditions
remained unsatisfactory and farmers were once again forced to accept uneconomic prices for
their produce at the height of the season.
Due to the fact that the local farmers have no marketing organisation only small quantities
of vegetables were exported to neighbouring countries.
Investigations are now proceeding with a view to form a grower’s association and provided
the Bahrain Government agrees to unlimited export it is hoped to improve the financial position
of growers.
The system of leasing gardens on a short term basis remained unchanged except for a few
isolated cases and the consequent deterioration through lack of continuity and maintenance
was very noticeable especially in date palm gardens.
The field application and conservation of irrigation water in the gardens is causing in­
creasing concern. Many old wells arc leaking badly and farmers are wasting appreciable
quantities of water through failure to shut off irrigation water when it is not required. Due to
the fact that the static head of water on the Island is dropping rapidly the necessity to conserve
water is becoming increasingly important and unless active measures arc taken in the near
future the supply of water for irrigation may be exhausted in another forty or fifty years time.
The economic position of the local farmers is far from satisfactory and most farmers have
little or no capital with which to improve their gardens. The Agricultural Loan which was
approved in 1954 has not been made available to growers and consequently farmers have not
been in a position to make improvements in their holdings. Provided agreement can be
reached in 1957 with regard to the issue of loans to farmers the situation should improve and !
farmers should be in a position to improve their holdings.

Experimental Centre. Work at the Government Experimental Centre proceeded smoothly
and expansion and investigation into many aspects of Agriculture received attention.

Fodder Crops. Many new types of fodder crops were introduced and yields on some of the
established crops were raised appreciably. One of the most successful crops under trial was i
Russian Comfrey. This perennial, high protein, long term crop with a low ratio of fibre to
protein is a valuable fodder crop especially as yields often exceed 100 tons to the acre per
annum.
Ccrial Crops. Results as far as cerial crops were concerned were disappointing and it is
hoped that with the introduction of disease resistant seed that better yields will be obtained.
Fruit Crops. Most of the fruit crops under investigation gave encouraging results and it is
hoped to gradually increase stocks of budded fruit trees for sale to local farmers at nominal
prices. Selected varieties of papaws did extremely well under local conditions and many
hundreds of trees were distributed to local farmers.

Nursery. The nursery at Budeya which is now well established was expanded appreciably
and thousands of trees were sold locally. Exports to neighbouring countries continued to
increase and the public parks, gardens and avenues were also supplied with ornamentals from
the Experimental Station.