Date Palm Research Center of Excellence (DPRC)
The Date Palm Research Centre (DPRC) was established in 1983 in King Faisal University (KFU), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In 2007, it was transferred to a center of excellence and supported with a significant financial budget that enabled it to noticeably and visibly be recognized at the regional and international levels through its outstanding scientific and development achievements. The DPRC vision is to be a leading regional and international recognized Centre of excellence in date palm research and development and its mission is to ensure a lively and flourishing date palm sector in the Kingdom, outreaching regionally and globally to attain highest productivity, quality standards and innovative products. DPRC conspicuously contributes in achieving the vision and mission of KFU that focus on education, quality research and community services in different key pillars that include the date palm sector. It developed a well -oriented Strategic Plan for 2012-2020 that provided a road map for DPRC to achieve it’s strategic and direct objectives. Since its establishment, DPRC successfully organized 5 international date palm symposia during 1982-2013. DPRC is working through 6 integrated research programs, namely; Date Palm Physiology and Production, Biotechnology of Date Palm, Sustainable Pest Management in Date Palm, Advance Precision Technologies for Date Palm, Date Processing and value-added technologies, Extension and Economics of Date Palm and its Derivatives. Since 2007, DPRC has attained several achievements key of which publication of 94 peer reviewed scientific papers in international refereed journals, 18 book chapters, 6 patents, 26 commercial research products and won 2 international awards. In addition, it collaborated with 13 national and 13 international academic and scientific institutions/ organizations in different scientific endeavors.