Qatar’s Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) has donated 72 greenhouses to 24 different nurseries. The initiative aims to support local nurseries in growing fresh produce in the summer. This new support measure will encourage beneficiary farms to increase production, the ministry recently shared on Twitter.
In addition, the ministry has provided 6010 baskets of seeds to 435 nurseries. 452 farms with a total acreage of 13,600,000 m2 also received assistance from the ministry to make plowing and leveling the land easier.
The Ministry of Agriculture has guided the growers. In May and June 2021, a team of experts from the Ministry made a total of 788 visits to the farms to provide the necessary guidance to the growers.
Self-sufficiency
The support is part of an MME project in which millions of Qatari Riyals are being invested in helping local nurseries to raise fruit and vegetable production to an adequate level. The State Food Security Projects 2019-2023, launched by MME, aims to make Qatar 70% self-sufficient in the cultivation of fresh vegetables by 2023.
To achieve this goal, the projects focus on increasing local food production in two ways. The first way is to boost existing farms by ensuring they can remain fully productive year round, thanks to the greenhouses received, the latest horticultural technologies and seeds, fertilizers and marketing platforms.
The second way is to start up new major projects with the support of the private sector, in which a number of projects have already started and are currently under construction.
In January of this year, the Ministry of Municipality and the Environment announced its intention to set up farms to guarantee the cultivation of leafy vegetables all year round. The agricultural season in the country is limited to a few months, so the idea behind the plan is to be able to grow leafy greens year-round using the proposed farms.
Source: www.thepeninsulaqatar.com
