Qatar government represented by the Ministry of Municipality and Environment has taken a number of initiatives in recent years to raise country’s self sufficiency in vegetables, dairy and meat products.
All these efforts multiplied after the unjust siege imposed on Qatar in June 2017 and since then many new ambitious plans were conceived and executed successfully to achieve self sufficiency in food from reviving non-productive agricultural fields to establishing new poultry and dairy farms.
The Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) has undertaken many initiatives to develop the agricultural sector through providing support to farms and investors. Qatar’s locally produced vegetables’ sales surged over 16 percent in December 2018 compared to November 2018 at winter vegetable markets due to increased production of local seasonal vegetables.
The winter vegetable markets operating at Al Mazrouah, Al Khor-Dhakhira, Al Wakrah and Al Shamal sold a total of 870 tonnes of vegetables in December which was an average of 218 tonnes per week.
On Thursday, Minister of Municipality and Environment, H E Abdullah bin Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Subaie said that the Ministry was keen to provide full support to productive agriculture, animal and fish farms to increase their production.
Speaking to a group of owners of local farms, H E the Minister lauded the important and effective role played by the owners of farms in the past by increasing agricultural production and raising self-sufficiency in local production of several agricultural commodities.
“Qatar gives great importance to the agriculture sector because of its role in achieving food security. Helped by the various initiatives taken by the Ministry and proactive role of the private sector, the self sufficiency in food production of Qatar has increased significantly,” the Minister added.
According to the data of MME, Qatari market has attained self sufficiency in some product categories such as poultry, fresh milk and shrimp. The country’s self sufficiency in poultry has reached 124 percent while it is 105 percent in case of fresh milk production. The production of shrimp in the country is now able to meet the local demand fully. According to recent media reports, there are about 1, 200 farms in Qatar (most of them located in the northern areas), among them 300 are active and they are marketing their products in the country.
Since the siege was imposed on Qatar, Qatari farms have increased their produce by more than 100 percent, and over 400 protected houses (shaded agricultural facilities) were also built at a number of farms.
The Ministry of Municipality and Environment also recently announced plans of introducing advanced LED farming technology in Qatar which will bring radical changes in agriculture sector as the technology will help improve the quality and quantity of products.
