By Joseph Varghese
Staff Reporter
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Qatar will be able to produce 40% of strategically-important food items locally within a period of 10 years as outlined in the Qatar National Food Security Plan, said Fahad bin Mohamed al-Attiya, executive chairman of the Qatar National Food Security programme (QNFSP).
“The first phase of the Qatar’s food security programme has already begun,” he explained at a reception hosted by Brookings Doha Centre on Tuesday in connection with its Doha Energy Forum.
HE Dr Mohamed bin Saleh al-Sada, Minister of Energy and Industry, a number of diplomats from various missions as well as delegates attending the energy forum were present.
“Through better technology, better crops and better practices, Qatar can produce five times more than the food that we are doing at present. This can be achieved using the same amount of land and one third of water used at present,” al-Attiya said.
The Qatar National Food Security Plan was formed recently and submitted to the government for its implementation across the country. “In its four volumes of recommendations, the plan outlines efforts to increase our storage of food and water and a 10-year road map for supplying the national demand to high-efficiency local production of strategically important food items,” he said.
The official called the challenge “significant”. “While there are significant opportunities for private sector successes in the short term and throughout the path ahead, it will take at least 10 years for our nation to establish the full capacity to maintain its food security.”
“Qatar being a hyper-arid desert country, the national plan is built around two aspects which are lack of water availability and limitation of trade routes. The plan puts water efficiency and availability of trade routes at the forefront for selecting crops to be used for local production.”
Al-Attiya also said that Qatar was heavily dependent of desalinated water for domestic consumption and other purposes. “Qatar had almost 5% of the fresh water from its underground water resources in the 1980s which has shrunk to 1% now. We had not taken notice of the situation seriously and we did not develop any technologies to meet the eventuality.”
He observed that the consumption of 430 litres of water per person daily in Qatar is far ahead of many of the countries that have abundances of water such the US and Brazil.
“This issue needs to be addressed along with better irrigation facilities. This can lead the country to have water reserves up to two years.”
Some prominent young Qataris such as Raed al-Emadi, CEO of Qatar Business Incubation Centre, Khalifa al-Haroon, founder and CEO of ILoveQatar.net, Reem al-Harmi columnist, social media expert Ammar Mohamed and human rights advocate Fatima al-Dosari also spoke. Brookings Doha Centre director Salman Shaikh welcomed the gathering and highlighted the centre’s activities.
