Doha: The Livestock Department at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) has planned to open three new livestock markets in Al Khor, Al Sheehaniya and Abu Nakhla.
“Two livestock markets are in operation, selling locally farmed animals directly to customers without middlemen in Al Mazrouha and Al Shamal,” said Director of Livestock Department at MME, Eng. Abdul Aziz Al Ziyara in a Qatar Radio programme yesterday.
He said that Department launched a number of initiatives for establishing markets for local livestock farms (locally called Al Azab) in cooperation with Qatar Development Bank. “The markets will include veterinary clinics, pharmacies, and outlets for selling compost and green fodder,” said Al Ziyara.
He said that under an initiative of farming animals Al Azab complexes, ten projects were launched for private sector for buying animals from small farmers and reselling them to the customers in cooperation with Widam Food Company.
He said that the Ministry of Municipality and Environment provided free of cost veterinary services, compost fodder, milking machines for sheep, goat and cow at livestock complexes.
“The Ministry issued certificates to livestock farmers which are required at the Ministry of Commence and Industry for disbursal of subsidised fodder and water,” said Al Ziyara.
He said that the Ministry also issued certificates which are submitted at the Ministry of Interior to hire workers for farming animals and it facilitated farmers to get easy loan for buying animals for farming.
Speaking about the contribution of the production of local livestock in ensuring food security in the country, Al Ziyara said that Qatar became 100 percent self-sufficient in the production of fresh chicken and dairy products. However, he said, the self-sufficiency rate of the country in the production of table eggs and red meat reached 34 percent and 18 percent respectively.
“We aim to increase the self-sufficiency rate of local food production in the future. We have launched projects which will help in raising the self-sufficiency rate of the country in table eggs from 34 percent at present to 70 percent by the end of 2022,” said Al Ziyara.
He said that the self-sufficiency rate of red meat production in the country is expected to increase from 18 percent at present to 30 percent by 2022 with the help of animal farming projects.