The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries, Food and Animal Rights Anton Refalo met with several local councils to enable the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture to distribute small palm plants. before the dolphin season begins.
The Plant Protection Directorate plays a role in this process as it collects palm trees that are free of any biological diseases or any other defects. After this process it takes care to care for the palm trees to make sure that they are not attacked by the red palm weevil and at the same time the beneficiaries benefit from this process as well.
In all, there are eighteen local councils and fourteen fishermen interested in acquiring young seedlings to grow palm trees. The leaves of these trees are very much needed to launch a free palm-splitting initiative a few days before the opening of the dolphin season. The government wants to reassure fishermen that they will have enough palm to prepare their trellis for the dolphin season which usually starts on August 15 and runs until the end of the year. Later in the year a series of meetings will be held with public and private entities as well as with local councils in order to reach an agreement on which areas the palm will be planted, the leaves will be collected and finally the distribution will be made free to fishermen. Such an initiative also serves to beautify the environment and the sustainability of palm trees.
The minister said last year more than 800 trees had been cut down and 15,000 palm leaves had been given to dolphin fishermen. He also said that this is another example of how much the government is doing everything it can to continue to help fishermen and make their work easier.
