Qatar is using new approach to increase agriculture production, aiming to achieve self sufficiency in food security. Using innovative technology for agriculture will help the country to achieve its goal early.
The Ministry of Municipality and Environment, in a statement last week, said that it had offered 34 new strategic projects for private investors to produce vegetables using greenhouse technology. Each project has an area of about 100,000 square metre.
The Ministry is paying special attention to the dissemination of soil-less farming technology. There has been significant growth in soil-less cultivated areas in a large number of Qatari farms in the past few years. The new projects for producing vegetables in greenhouses will apply this type of technology.
The Ministry has also completed the design of a project to build a huge complex for agricultural research and guidance at Al Mazrouha, Umm Salal, which will develop agricultural techniques and will be helpful in increasing country’s local production.
The complex, which will be spread over an area of 270,000 square metres, will have research facilities to increase the agricultural production, develop advanced techniques for aquaponic farming to produce fresh-water fish and organic vegetables and new models of protected farms.
Qatar’s agricultural sector has taken huge leaps in the use of modern irrigation systems in local farms, increasing the use of these systems in Qatari farms from about 45 percent of the total cultivated area in 2010, to over 80 percent of the total cultivated area in 2018.
The Ministry has encouraged the transformation of farms from traditional irrigation to modern irrigation systems through an agreement with the Qatar Development Bank under which the bank grants farmers easy loans to install modern irrigation systems.
The Ministry also has focus on organic agriculture because of its high competitiveness in the Qatari market. Eight Qatari farms use organic method of production, three of them are currently marketing their vegetables in the Qatari market, while others are preparing to register for organic farming over the next few years.
In the livestock sector, the Ministry has opened the Animal Production Research Center in Al Shahaniya recently, which is mainly concerned with applied research in livestock, including in vitro fertilisation (IVF) research.
About 700,000 heads of animals have been immunised, which has increased the number of animals in the country from around 600,000 in 2012 to about 1.5 million this year. All these steps confirm that Qatar’s agriculture sector is strong and vibrant.
