In order to build a robust food security strategy, Qatar has adopted many plans that give high priority to domestic self-sufficiency in strategic commodities and shift production towards best technologies to drive yield improvement enhancing domestic production.
This is through focusing works on agriculture, water, renewable energy and food manufacturing. These are the essential areas for securing country’s needs for food and also put in place adequate reserves against temporary import or production disruptions.
The food security strategy has put activation of domestic markets as one of its work plans to ensure food supply chain and fair commercial practices.
For this, many initiatives were taken throughout the past years, including initiative for promoting marketing of local agricultural products aimed at enhancing the value of the local produce and improve marketing methods for farm owners.
Since 2012, the Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) has been lunching initiatives that benefit farmers from direct marketing outlets and yards for selling agricultural products geographically distributed to cover different parts of the country.
The aim of such initiative was to encourage and improve productivity, create opportunities for the local farmers to sell their products directly to consumers without an intermediary or commission, as has been stated by the Assistant Director of the Agricultural Affairs Department at the MME, Adel Al Kaldi Al Yafei.
The Ministry reaffirmed that the initiative has a great impact on both consumers and suppliers as it has contributed to improving the marketing method, reducing vegetable losses, improving production quality and selling prices of farm owners’ products. The number of farms that benefited from this initiative during this season which started at the end of October 2020 until the end of February 2021, reached 159 and vegetable sales amounted 8,000 tonnes according to Al Yafei. This has showed an increase of 34 percent on sales compared to the previous year in the same period.
In cooperation with Mahaseel Company, MME also implemented a pre-contracting program with farmers (Daman), to make sure that the farmers obtain appropriate prices for their produce within this program.
Through this programme Mahaseel company has some 9 million kilos of vegetables through 95 outlets this year, with a purchase value of about QR29m, as the number of farms exceeds 350, according to the General Manager of Mahaseel Mohammed Ali Al Ghaithani.
As well, in order to ensure diversity of products and avoid producing specific varieties in abundance, the Ministry has provided farmers with guidelines to direct them to organize the production process.
