Qatar sees huge growth in agricultural production over 5 years

Doha: From 53,000 tonnes in 2016 to 104,000 tonnes in 2020, Qatar’s agricultural output nearly doubled over the past 5 years.

In agricultural production, the self-sufficiency of Qatar has increased to 38 per cent as of 2020. This is 4 per cent higher than the rate set by the Strategic Food Security Projects 2019-23. If everything goes according to the plan, Qatar’s self-sufficiency rate in vegetable produce will increase to 70% by 2023 under the Ministry of Municipality and Environment’s (MME) strategy.

MME’s Economics and Statistics Section of the Agricultural Affairs Department released the figures. The local agricultural output achieved 20 per cent self-sufficiency in 2017, with 55,000 tonnes. According to the Ministry’s statistics, the produce reached 74,000 tonnes with 27 per cent self-sufficiency in 2018 and 91,000 tonnes with 33 per cent self-sufficiency in 2019.

The Agricultural Affairs Department is supporting local farms to enhance agricultural productivity. The initiative will help local farmers to continue production during summer. Recently, it distributed 72 greenhouses to 24 farms. The Ministry also establishing greenhouses, which will boost production heavily.

MME has launched an initiative called the State Food Security Projects 2019-2023 which aims to make Qatar 70 per cent self-sufficient in fresh vegetable production by 2023. From 832 in 2017, the total amount of agricultural farms have jumped to 953 now.