Comprehended an Evening Session on Investment in Date-Palms and Dates
Reviewing 27 Scientific Papers at Concluding the Arab Conference for Dates-Palms and Dates

201111/1/1433

Activities of the Arab Conference for Dates-Palms and Dates 2011 were wound-up at headquarters of King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) today with three sessions that reviewed 27 scientific papers. These papers concentrated on their entirety   on date-palm diseases and pest management, technologies and techniques of processing dates and date-palms byproducts and their economics besides an evening session that discussed developing Arab and international investments for  date-palm and dates sector.
The first session was chaired by Dr. Hassan Al – Ayedh through which 11 scientific papers were presented. These papers  concentrated on issues of managing date-palms and dates diseases and pests. The first paper elaborated on the biological fight against a moth that damages dates in Algeria and was prepared by Abdelkader Boufersaoui, Ali Chikhi, Farida Metiaz and Ahmed Aderrahmani.
The second paper that was prepared by Aziza Sharaby, Fatma Mahmoud and Sobhi Abdulhamid, explored inorganic salts for the production of sterile adults of Red Palm Weevil. Then Rasmi Soltani, , in the third paper,  observations on the biology and ecology pests of date palms in Tunisia.
The fourth paper spotted the light on the trap for auto dissemination of the fungus by adult red palm weevils in date palm plantations and was presented by Said Albgham, Said Alawash, Ali Shahdad and Ali Al Bathra. They were followed by Annie Thomas and Nair who discussed elecrophoretic mobilities of haemolymph protein for red palm weevils. 
The sixth paper prepared by Ali Khaywon Shbar; Bassim Hassan, Noel Jabo and Rajaa Sami concentrated on activity of insect fauna during the night, in the palm orchards of central Iraq. The seventh paper followed explaining the effect of fusariosis on the metabolism of phenolics compounds of date palm leaflets, resistant and sensitive to the disease and was presented by Saida Ouafi and Nicole Bounaga.            
The eighth scientific paper, presented by Salem Bashomaila, elaborated on the field efficacy evaluation of botanical extracts against date-palms dobas. The ninth paper discussed the population dynamics of the Red Palm Weevil on date palm plantations in 6th October Governorate in Egypt and was presented Wael Elshafeei, Fares Elbanna and Rasha Elhosary.
The next paper presented by Saad Eisa dealt with date palms in organic agriculture while the eleventh and last scientific paper in this session reviewed a study of fungal infections on dates during storage and was presented by Sultani and Mabrouka.
The second session chaired by Dr. Ibrahim Alruqaie was designated to discuss manufacturing dates and date-palms byproducts and included seven scientific papers; the first paper of which prepared by Salah Aleid, Kirk Dolan, Sanghyup Jeong and Muhammad Siddiq explained the effect of x-ray irradiation on food borne pathogens and sensory properties of dates.
Dennis Johnson presented the second paper through which he reviewed enhancement of date palms as a source of multiple products giving examples from other industrialized palms, while the third paper tackled the effect of biologically treated date palm feed on lambs and was presented by both Mohamed Elmanylawi and Ahmed Mahrous.
The fourth scientific paper, by Hatem. Alshanti, Kamel Jameel, Moufeed Abu Showayb and Abdulkader Kholif, presented a study on the effect of diets containing different levels of crushed date stones on growing Assaf lambs. The fifth paper handled composition and functional properties of the date’s fruit residue and was prepared by Isameldin Basheer Hatem and Ali Hassan khaleel.
The sixth paper presented by Alaa Abdulkhaliq discussed the effect of palm of pollen grain extract on the sterility induced by acrylamide in male rabbits. This session was concluded by the response of growing New Zealand white rabbits to dietary date stone meal, with or without commercial enzyme supplementation presented in a scientific paper by Ahmed Elmanylawi.
The last session of the conference chaired by Dr. Dennis Johnson focused on dates’ economics and value addition and comprehended nine scientific papers; the first of which elaborated on economic importance of date production in Saudi Arabia and the Arab world and was presented by Safer Al- Kahtani.

The second paper prepared by Abdulhameed Al-Abbad, Mohamed  Aljamal,  Zaki  Alelaiw, Fakhri  Alshreef and Fakhri Belaifa who reviewed a study on the economic feasibility of date palm cultivation in the Al-Hassa Oasis of Saudi Arabia. They were followed by Salah Eddine Benziouche who presented an economic analysis of the production and marketing of Algerian dates in the global market.
The fourth paper presented by Mohamed Al- Habshi reviewed Improving the distribution of market profit for date-palms produced in Yemen while, Fayga Hussain  presented another review of production economics of Sudanese and Arab dates in Khartoum state during dates season of 2010.
The competitiveness of Algerian dates in the most important international markets was the main topic of the sixth scientific paper presented by Bachir Aichi. He was followed by  Rehab Salah who presented an Analysis of biochemistry of Sudanese date stone oil and its biochemical properties.
The eighth scientific paper, presented by Oustani Mabrouka,   focused on a pilot study to evaluate the use of date palm residues as organic fertilizer in desert areas. The session was concluded by a scientific paper that reviewed studies on production of new product from tissue and dates by Hanaa Abdulfattah and Tarek El-Kafrawy.
The conference organized an evening session chaired by Dr. Abdullah Al-Obaid, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture for Research and Agricultural Development that was designated for open discussion with farmers, scientists and investors on developing investment in date palm and dates sector.