**1. Introduction**

Date palm cultivation in the Gulf Cooperation Council (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Sultanate of Oman, United Arab Emirates, and Kingdom of Bahrain) has a long history, yet the efforts exerted by the individual countries on its research and development, although significant, are still insufficient and fall below expectations. In general, the product quality is still low, the field and postharvest losses are high, and the date products and by-products utilization needs improvement. Therefore, the status of date palm cultivation in the GCC countries and the enhancement of quality of produce cannot be overemphasized. To address the above mentioned constrains, the GCC countries ranked date palm as one of the high research priority as reflected in priority setting for agricultural research in the Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA) region [1].

In this regards, the project "*Development of sustainable date palm production systems in the GCC countries of the Arabian Peninsula*", funded by the GCC Secretariat, was implemented, in partnership, by various ministries of agriculture, agricultural authorities, and agricultural research institutions and universities in the six GCC countries of the Arabian Peninsula (Kingdom of Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, State of Kuwait, State of Qatar, Sultanate of Oman, and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - KSA) and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). The major objectives of the project are to improve date palm productivity per unit of water and rationalize the use of the available resources in order to make production sustainable.
