12. In brief we need advice about pretty well everything including for existing crops the identification of pests and the measures to be taken against them. With the arrival from Muscat on or about the Ist of February of a Province Agricultural Officer to work within the Development Department - for reasons which I shall explain privately - we shall be much better placed to start all the ground work on a professional basis. Michael Butler and I between us can provide the drive but as of today we are not altogether sure where we are going! A Final Item 13. No saga on Dhofar can be completed without mention of the tradi tional trades in incense and ghee, As far as I am a ware the demand for incense died centuries ago. That for ghee is still very much alive. The only figure I have refers, I think, to 1963 or thereabouts. In that year according to a Muscat merchant, who was engaged in the trade, ghee exports from Dhofar amounted to 40,000 gallons. A four gallon tin in Muscat now costs between £13-£15. There is clearly money in ghee, and there may well be a future for other animal by-products too including in the long term, meat. Hides were a trade in the past. According to Mr. Jack in 1954, 1500 hides were exported. They were purchased in 'packets' of 20 and each packet' fetched about £16. The hides were bought by weight so there was no attempt or incentive to improve quality. Technical Assessment 14. It is clear from this account by the Dhofar Development Director that what is needed is immediate action to rehabilitate agriculture on the coastal plain after a long period of stagnation. In the long term information will need to be, gathered about the resources available for development both on the plain and in the adjoining hills and dry steppe behind. For the moment however the problem is to make use of the resources that are visibly there in order to restore economic life on the plain. The 200 existing wells were estimated by Hartley to irri gate about 1200 acres and a more recent estimate by C.R. Kras of NEDECO puts the present cultivated area at 2000 acres. Hartley calcu lated that the five springs are potentially capable of providing permanent irrigation for 2400 acres and there are possibilities for flood irrigation in summer from the Hamran spring of up to 3000 acres. There seems to ample groundwater for further development of irrigation from wells. Kras, on the basis of a reconnaissance in April 1970, estimated that provided sufficient groundwater proves to be available it might be possible to find something like 25,000 acres of land suitable for agricultural development. - 5 -
