Qatari farms expected to increase vegetable production

The local Qatari farms are expected to record an increase of 2% to 3% in vegetable production. Youssef Khaled al-Khulaifi, director of the Agricultural Affairs Department at the Ministry of Municipality, told local Arabic daily Arrayah that total volume of vegetable production stood at 102,000 tonnes last year and this season is set to witness a growth. This is the result of a slew of projects, being implemented by the ministry while supporting and encouraging the local farmers.

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Al-Khulaifi said the department is working to encourage farms by launching various agricultural initiatives and providing support and services to farmers. Farms are urged to adopt modern methods and systems for farming, such as greenhouses and hydroponics.

These are in addition to implementing many programmes and procedures in order to preserve natural resources and water. The department also provides technical support to farmers while working to raise the capabilities of farm supervisors through guidance and modern production and marketing methods in order to increase production as well as reduce costs in vegetable cultivation.

“The agricultural census project, which is being implemented in cooperation with Qatar University (QU), helps evaluate agricultural decisions, strategies and production expectations during upcoming events in Qatar while allowing appropriate decisions to be taken,” al-Khulaifi said.

He pointed out that the agricultural calendar is one of the important factors for initiating the agricultural process by the farmers. The department has intensified visits to communicate with farm owners and direct them to work with the agricultural calendar to achieve the desired goal.

Regarding the desire of some farm owners to export vegetables, al-Khulaifi said it has to wait as despite the increasing interest in the agricultural sector and the growth in local production, the country is yet to reach self-sufficiency.

He explained that the Agricultural Affairs Department has distributed 5,777 greenhouses (normal, cooled and hydroponic) to farm owners from 2016 to 2021. “The department is keen to support farms with regular and cooled greenhouses in order to achieve the main goal of raising self-sufficiency rates of vegetables by encouraging farmers to use the best modern agricultural methods (protected agriculture). The department is looking to continue distributing greenhouses during the next phase to farm owners and support the distribution of modern irrigation systems in order to form an integrated system for the greenhouse, which leads to increased production and reduced waste in water use. These result in increasing the index of self-sufficiency in vegetables and maintaining water security at the same time,” he said.

With regard to the local vegetable sales through the yards, al-Khulaifi noted that the volume through Al Khor and Al Thakhira, Al Wakra, Al Shamal and Al Shahaniya reached around 12,000 last year marking 11.7% of the total vegetable sale in the country.