Investigating the effect of dust on chemical compounds of Mazafati date fruit (Case ‎study: Saravan region)‎

Dust is one of the inevitable climatic features of Iran. Today, farmer’s most problem in the date regions is the effect of dust on date palm trees. This study carried out to investigate the effect of dust on Mazafati date fruit's chemical composition in three regions: Saravn, Jalq, and Routak in Sistan and Baluchistan province in 2016 and 2017. In each region five groves and in each grove, five palm trees with the same age (eight-year-old), height, number of reproductive years (third year of reproduction) were selected and marked for sampling the studied traits. Saravan region pollen was used to fertilize all trees. Some traits such as total soluble solids (TSS), total sugar content, pH, and also nutritional elements nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium were measured. Statistical analysis of the estimated traits was performed for two consecutive years based on the nested design. The result showed that the effect of the region (amount of dust) was significant for all traits. In Routak region with high dust content, total sugar was estimated to be 26.16% less than the Saravan region with low dust content. The percentage of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium elements in Saravan region with low dust level was estimated 0.49, 0.68 and 1.48, respectively, and in Rotek region with high dust level was 0.32, 0.49 and 1.24, respectively. Since the three regions were different in terms of dust content, we can say that dust reduces the nutrients of Mazafati date fruit and reduces the quality and marketability.