Minister of Municipality H E Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Subaie with other officials during the honouring ceremony at AgriteQ 2023, DECC, yesterday.
Doha: Over 35,000 people visited the 10th Qatar International Agricultural Exhibition (AgriteQ) 2023 at Doha Exhibition and Convention Center (DECC), marking the huge success of the event.
The five-day event, organised by the Ministry of Municipality, concluded on a high note yesterday. Minister of Municipality H E Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Subaie honoured a number of participants and sponsors at the conclusion ceremony.
Associated Scientific Conference of AgriteQ 2023 concluded its activities after holding four workshops, during which 54 research papers were presented.
The conference dealt with research and studies on food security, the Gharsa initiative for home farming, the national strategy for food security, and aquaculture research, with the participation of elite scientists, experts, researchers, and local and international government officials. Dr. Muhammad Saif Al Kuwari, Chairman of the Supervisory Committee of Associated Scientific Conference AgriteQ 2023 announced a number of recommendations such as adopting crops that use less water and finding an advanced system for storing foodstuffs.
Recommendations include reducing food shortages by providing baseline data and making the most of rainfall, supporting local agriculture through food supplies from foreign countries and introducing new varieties of economic palm trees.
It also includes developing logistic services for the import and export of food products in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries. The recommendations announced by Al Kuwari include using local plant species that are compatible with the local environment and have low water needs and using fertilisers of organic origin that have a long-term positive effect on plants and soil.
He said that preparing plans and programmes is needed to raise the percentage of utilisation of cultivated areas in registered farms to not less than 70% of the total area. Al Kuwari recommended developing the livestock sector for economic growth, food security and poverty reduction and encouraging farms to market their various animal products.
During the exhibition, the in-kind contribution of Qatar, amounting to 120 tonnes of packaged dates for the year 2022, was handed over to Katrina Gallouzi, Deputy Director of the World Food Programme office and the programme representative in the GCC and United Nations countries, which in turn will support the operations of the World Food Programme in some countries.
The participants and visitors stressed that the exhibition was a success for Qatar as the agricultural exhibition has gained special importance, as it is a strategic platform to explore new horizons to upgrade the Qatari agricultural sector as the backbone of food security.
It comes at the forefront of the strategic priorities to achieve self-sufficiency, in addition to being an effective platform to offer innovative environmental solutions to meet current and emerging challenges, and an opportunity to exchange international and local experiences.
More than 55 countries participated in the exhibition and the number of exhibiting companies reached 675, including 523 international companies and 152 local companies.
The exhibition included 30 pavilions and participating official destinations. On the sidelines of the exhibition, a scientific conference was held, during which several workshops on agricultural and food security issues were held.
The markets for vegetables honey and dates, especially for vegetable farms and farms specialising in organic farming, were held at the exhibition, which attracted a large number of visitors.
