Doha, In accordance with its strategic plan, the Ministry of Municipality seeks to achieve food security for the State of Qatar while ensuring efficient resource management and adhering to the highest food safety standards. This is to be accomplished by increasing production and using technology-based agriculture systems to achieve self-sufficiency and reduce the use of groundwater, and fully transitioning to treated wastewater for animal feed.
The Ministry, represented by the Agricultural Affairs Department, is participating in the 43rd World Food Day celebration, which falls on Oct. 16 each year. This year’s theme is ‘Water is Life, Water is Food. Leave No One Behind’. It is marking the 78th anniversary of the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
This year’s celebration aims to raise awareness about the importance of managing water wisely as the availability of this precious resource is threatened by rapid population growth urbanization, economic development, and climate change.
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he State of Qatar’s celebration of the World Food Day this year coincides with its hosting of the International Horticultural Expo 2023 (Expo 2023 Doha), which highlights the latest Qatari and international initiatives, innovations and efforts in modern agriculture, urban greening, and vegetation. The exhibition focuses on modern agriculture, technology, and innovation.
Being an important department in the agricultural and food security sector at the Ministry of Municipality, the Agriculture Affairs Department is responsible for all matters related to agricultural services. It guides farmers to adopt modern farming techniques to develop and increase local agricultural production in terms of quantity and quality. The department monitors the performance of registered farms and works on their development with the aim of elevating agricultural work in the country. The department adopts a strategic agricultural plan aimed at achieving self-sufficiency in agricultural production and vegetables, contributing to sus
tainable agricultural development within the framework of Qatar National Vision 2030.
The Agriculture Affairs Department also supports farmers with regular and cooled greenhouses as a modern farming method and promotes the efficient use of irrigation water. The Ministry has a project to distribute modern irrigation networks to farms for use in open field agriculture. The project started in August, 2022, with the aim of spreading modern irrigation methods and increasing the area under drip irrigation. The project targets 400 farms, and its duration is three years (from 2022 to 2024).
The Ministry of Municipality, represented by the Agriculture Affairs Department, paid special attention to rationalizing the consumption of water used in agriculture through various plans and programs. This includes raising awareness and training farmers in the use of modern methods for crop irrigation, as traditional or old irrigation methods lead to a waste of 50 to 60 percent of the amount of water used, affecting groundwater
reserves. Currently, modern irrigation networks cover 89% of open field areas in farms. (MORE)
Source: Qatar News Agency