customary line in fruit and vegetables, limes, guavas, tomatoes, onions, ladies fingers, green peppers (fifty tons a year exported to Muscat), eggplant, etc. Coconuts are an obvious priority. There used to be a trade in shipping out whole coconuts to Muscat but demand has fallen steadily in recent years. The present prios in Muscat of about $7 per 1000 coconuts from which shipping and handling charges of between £3 - £4 have to be deducted, make this trade all båt uneconomic. The answer must lie in the processing of the coconut locally whether for copra or for oil. We need advice on this. None of the expatriate staff here have had any experienos of coconuts. Vegetable Oils 10. Coconuts and the stepping up of production of the items mentioned in the preceding paragraph to meet the local demand which with the increase of money in circulation - Taylor Woodrow now has contracts in hand worth more than £4,000,000 - all these things apart, I feel that the long term agricultural answer probably lies in the production of vegetable oils. Sesame, which used to flourish in South Arabia, ought to do well. As the soil is light ground nuts might be worth a trial. Castor, though I have not seen it growing here, is said to do well as do sun flowers. But on all these subjects we need advice and help. Immediate Aims and Help and Guidance 11. Partly because of the security situation and partly because of the lack of harbour facilities, the harbour will not be finished until 1973, the possibilities for immediate large scale activity are limited. In these circumstances aside from meeting what is in essence a political requirement for cattle fodder, we should concentrate, I feel, on clearing the decks for expansion in say two years time. In the meantime advice is urgently requested on the following: 1. The proper establishment of the experimental farm. 2. What to grow there and how to grow it. 3. What seed to buy and from where it may be obtained. 4. The use of fertilizers, which to chose and the names of suppliers. 5. Underlying 2 and 3, the question of marketing. If it is recommended that we should go in for the production of vegetable soils we shall need information and guidance about crushers, how the oil should be handled (and refined?) and the containers into which the oil should be put. - 4 -
