Ministry of Municipality continues support for local dates farms

The Ministry of Municipality (MoM)’s Agriculture Affairs Department has invited farm owners who want to supply local dates to the ministry for the 2023/2024 season to register at the ministry's website.The ministry has been supporting local farmers, in particular dates farms, in various ways to help them improve their production and increase their income, to further expand and enhance their business, and to increase the participation of local farm and agriculture production for the country's food security.The ultimate aim is to reach as much as possible of self-sufficiency through local supply and reduce dependency on imported food products.The ministry organised the 9th Local Dates Festival at Souq Waqif from July 23 to August 3 with the participation of more than 100 local farms.The festival, held regularly, helps farm owners display and sell their products direct to customers.The dates bought by the ministry through such initiatives are marketed locally in part and donated to the various local charities for distribution to the needy.Earlier, the ministry’s Agriculture Research Department offered for sale Tissue Culture Date Palm Seedling for both Qatari individuals and farms at QR85 a seedling.Under this initiative, more than 10,000 seedlings of three types of dates were sold within five months.Any Qatari adult could buy up to 10 of these seedlings at one time while registered farm owners can buy up to 150 seedlings within one year.These seedlings are known to be resistant to diseases and bugs, bear fruit earlier than other varieties, and enjoy high quality and abundant production of dates.It is estimate that there are currently around 916 palm tree farms in the country, with more than 675,670 palm trees producing different types and varieties of dates.The country has almost hit self-sufficiency dates production, with the largest amount of local needs of dates covered through the local production.However, imports of different types of dates will continue to be imported due to different customer preferences.