According to a senior official, the UAE will build the world’s largest vertical farm near the Expo 2020 site to enhance the country’s food production. “It will be operational very soon and will produce many of the fundamental food products that we require, such as tomatoes, leafy greens, and so on,” said Essa Abdul Rahman Al Hashemi, the UAE’s Food and Water Security Office’s Director.
Speaking at the Food, Agriculture, and Livelihoods Business Forum at Expo 2020 on Monday, Hashemi said the government is gradually moving toward food self-sufficiency by investing heavily in technology and innovation.
“Our self-sufficiency goals are moving forward at a rapid pace that is both ambitious and attainable,” Hashemi remarked. In recent years, UAE farmers have grown 70 different varieties of vegetables, fruits, and herbs, including tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, mangoes, and oranges, according to the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment.
Over 35,000 farms exist in the UAE, many of which use modern agricultural techniques including hydroponics and vertical farming.
Climate change, declining biodiversity, diminishing water resources, and disturbances in global supply networks are all posing serious challenges to the global agricultural and food landscape, making food security a top governmental issue for many countries.
It’s much more difficult for nations like the UAE, which imports 90% of its food.
With a growing population and increased consumer demands, the UAE faces a difficult problem in addressing its food security needs, which has been made even more difficult by the pandemic.
To promote food security and boost local agricultural output, the UAE created the National Food Security Strategy 2018.
“We discovered that by embracing technology and innovation, we can better manage the food security landscape of the country.”
According to Hashemi, the UAE began investing in advanced farming technology in 1968. “The first greenhouse was built in the United Arab Emirates in 1968. It proved that food that we previously thought was difficult to cultivate can be grown. From that point forward, the UAE has been firmly committed to controlled environment applications and the technology that goes along with them “he said.
He claims that approaches that allow them to control humidity, temperature, and the production environment improve yield while ensuring clean food manufacturing. Indoor farming is also popular, according to them, with many individuals converting buildings or containers to grow food.
Our farmers, on the other hand, are turning to low-tech, controlled-environment solutions like net houses. He claims that the elementary net houses that protect crops from excessive heat and humidity require relatively little water. “We discovered that net houses are even more efficient than certain high-tech greenhouses”.
Despite the fact that controlled farming technologies are a hot topic in the UAE, an official stated the country is hoping to be an early investor and entrant in new food production.
Despite the fact that controlled farming technologies are a hot topic in the UAE, an official stated the country is hoping to be an early investor and entrant in new food production.