Atul Ltd has been awarded the Siemens Ecovatives Award 2010 in Earthcare category for its unique innovative green initiative of ‘Greening the Deserts' through scientific cultivation of tissue cultured date palms.

Dedicating the Award to Rajasthan Horticulture Development Society, Government of Rajasthan and toiling farmers of arid regions, B N Mohanan Whole-time Director & President–Infrastructure Units, Atul said, “This green initiative, envisioned by our Chairman & Managing Director, Mr Sunil S Lalbhai and supported by Government of Rajasthan will help improve the economy and ecology of the arid regions and benefit the farming community.'' As a part of the integrated project, Atul is also setting up a world class Date Palm Tissue Culture laboratory at Jodhpur in a joint venture with Government of Rajasthan, with overseas technology.

Atul strongly believes that their implementation of this innovative fully integrated green initiative will help slow desertification, improve soil health and microbial action, alleviate the negative impacts of the stressed ecosystem, and help in carbon sequestering. It will also help in generating rural employment, improving return per acre to farmer, import substitution and save forex used for import of date fruit, develop down stream processing industry, etc. Incidentally, India is the largest date fruit importing country in the world.

Atul was also awarded the first prize in the prestigious Khalifa Interrnational Date Palm Award - 2009 in Abu Dhabi for its Tissue Culture Date Palm project. This award was contested by 19 countries worldwide.