Ministry conducts orientation day for farmers
With the aim of helping farmers and farm owners to achieve sustainability in developing further food security in Qatar, the Ministry of Municipality, represented by the Department of Agricultural Research, held an orientation field day where interesting ways of increasing the productivity of leafy and fruit crops with minimal water consumption was discussed.
This orientation field day marks the first among many more field days and workshops to come, according to the Director of the Department of Agricultural Research Hamad Saket Al Shammari. The reason behind organizing it is to present research results and recommendations, learn about the views of farmers and those involved in agriculture to progress the research system to aid farmers and attain food security.
During the review of ecological and environmental agriculture, Dr. Ali El Kharbotly, Consultant at the department spoke about the existence of a new farming technique that happens to be a first of its kind. It utilizes varieties of cultivation methods. Hence, known as a sustainable Qatari agricultural method.
As this method focusses on adopting an agricultural style that is purely dependent on local resources, advancement of food security grows, making Qatar a self-reliant country, and thus removing dependency on the global market for fertilizers and agricultural pesticides.
He stated that this technique benefits the growth of fertility for agricultural soil and enhances the production of organic vegetable crops at competitive prices, given the low cost of production inputs and the preservation of the natural farm resources and the Qatari environment. He emphasized that this new way of cultivation brings down the production costs by more than 90 percent.
Dr. Al Sayed Al Azazi, a specialist on genetic resources, conveyed a very interesting fact. He stated that the development of the germplasm of tomato varieties resist the high temperatures, making it a very favorable crop for Qatar
He further mentioned that the present research trials focus on evaluating and choosing a large number of tomato varieties and hybrids to plot the most appropriate for the Qatari environment, which is a heat-tolerant variety, for production in greenhouses.
As stated by him, throughout the first and second seasons of the project, 239 plant inputs were assessed to get precise data on the likely event of production during the summer months and resistance to agricultural maladies and pests.
---
Make sure to check out our social media to keep track of the latest content.
Instagram - @qatarliving
Twitter - @qatarliving
Facebook - Qatar Living
YouTube - qatarlivingofficial
Cover Image & Source Credit : Peninsula
