Palm dates cultivation has been known in southern Tunisia since prehistoric times, as it sleeps on a large water wealth, it extends from the bottom of Shatt el-Jerid to the beginnings of the Sahara Desert. It also witnessed the beginning of human presence in North Africa and the emergence of religious rituals.
Kebili was not mentioned before in Islamic or Roman times, while the villages of Talmin and Beshri were mentioned. In the Roman era, Talmin was the capital of the region. It was conquered by Uqba bin Nafie on his way to Kairouan in 670 AD, and the first mosque in North Africa was built there.
Beshri is of great importance because it is at the entrance to Shatt al-Jerid and al-Bakri mentions it on his journey, as well as al-Tijani, and al-Bakri says that it has a rocky and brick wall and has six doors and a mosque and around it are many water sources.
The oases Deglet Nour extend from the bottom of Shatt al-Jerid to Qasr Ghaylan, east of Douz, to Rejim Maatouk, west of Douz. Today, they produce about 60 percent of the national product of dates, basically Deglet Nour, and are known for their high quality, especially in sandy areas such as Zaafaran, Ghademah and Rejim Maatouq. The oases of Deglet Nour of Kebili represent the amazing ability of man to challenge the cruelty of nature, the oases today look like carpets scattered among the sand or a wonderful painting. In the midst of the sand dunes extending from Shatt el-Jerid to the borders of Algeria and Libya, you can see nothing but sprawling oases. The interest in palm cultivation since the eighteenth century, before it became a structured agricultural activity since the beginning of the twentieth century. The oases with Souk Qibli and Souk Douz are a qualitative leap in the history of the region
Although the old oases of Qibli have lost their productive capacity due to water scarcity, aging palm trees, and salinity of the land, which needs to change the soil and renew trees, a project that farmers have been waiting for for many years. And others are a space for the soul in the hot summer, so whoever enters it is as if he entered a refrigerator from the cold breeze, water canals, shades, fig trees, grapes and apricots that were abundant in the past.
In the seventies and sixties, and even to the beginning of the eighties, these oases were the paradise of the world, as Al-Bakry called it in his journey, in which there are three levels of planting, from pepper, tomatoes, turnips and carrots to the alfalfa that feeds the livestock that hardly a house is devoid of in those days when there was a local economy. The second level is for figs, grapes, and apricots. The third level is for Deglet Nour palm trees which is the principal activity and the most attention is given to.
The production cycle of the date palm, between flowering and harvesting, lasts 8 to 10 months. In March-April the pollination step is started, an artificial pollination by humans is followed because the male and female date palm flowers are not in the same tree. This step is relatively hard for growers, it’s hand made and needs time and money.
The date reaches its final size during the summer with a yellow and smooth color, in this step A net or plastic bag is tied around the bunches to protect them from rain and moisture, and to prevent infestation by pests, especially the date moth.The date ripens in autumn.
The harvest therefore takes place from the second half of September until December for the Deglet Nour variety, with a peak harvest before December. Fresh dates are picked when ripe and can only be kept for a few days; their Humidity level is about 70%. They are therefore refrigerated for up to six months or can also be frozen, which gives them greater storage potential. Dates can also be dried on the tree in the sun to reduce their water content from 70% to 20%. The harvest is generally made in traditional ways, humans grow the tree and cut date branches and bring them down with a rope. Sorting starts from the farm, poor-quality and unfertilised dates are removed and they may be used as livestock.
They are then taken to a sorting space on the farm for a second, more detailed round of sorting. Here, dates on branches are separated from the rest and the standard (loose) dates are sorted according to quality. The dates are then handed over to the packing and export companies, which performs further quality checks and the dates may be sorted yet again. The dates are packaged as per customer specifications
in Tunisia there are more than 300 varieties of dates Generally classified into two types: Deglet Nour with more than 3.5 million palm trees and all the other varieties known as common dates which have about 1.85 million palm trees. Deglet Nour is the main variety grown in Tunisia because of its nutritional, taste and conservation characteristics, These characteristics have made this Deglet Nour variety a star of dates in the world.
For other varieties of dates, we distinguish two classes; Common dates that can be found in stores, we can cite Allig, Khouat, Kenta, Bser…. and ocal varieties not marketed due to their delicacy and sensitivity to transport or their limited produced quantities.
