It started with a group of 16 people on WhatsApp.

"Emirates wheat" .. a national initiative that produces 80 tons

The number of farms participating in the initiative increased from 145 to 170 within a year.

wam

The "Emirates Wheat" initiative, which represents the most prominent national efforts in the field of enhancing food security, marked the beginning of a national path to expand wheat cultivation in all regions of the country, after it proved the possibility of cultivating this strategic yield during the period from November to March of each year. Watering 3 to 4 times a week, which rationalizes water consumption.

The initiative, which was launched by a WhatsApp group led by farmer Hamid Obaid Al Zaabi, and whose number does not exceed 16 farmers, was launched in 2017, and currently includes 170 farms, producing more than 80 tons of wheat nationwide during the harvest season.

Al Zaabi said, "The future of wheat cultivation in the country calls for optimism, and through this initiative, we seek to join the largest possible number of farmers to support the country's efforts to achieve food security, in addition to its societal role in spreading awareness of the importance of cultivating various agricultural crops at home to gradually sustain food." .

He added, "The culture of wheat cultivation must change, as we have the necessary capabilities to grow these grains, which represent a major driver of the food crisis that the world is witnessing today."

He added that in the UAE, "we have relatively large areas suitable for agriculture, in addition to the availability of modern irrigation networks and organic fertilizers that do not contain any pesticides or chemicals, and therefore local Emirati production (despite the limited production) outperforms the imported product."

He said, “There is an urgent need to change these misconceptions, for example, wheat cultivation consumes a lot of water, which drains groundwater, but the truth is quite the opposite. In the current farms in the country, there are networks based on innovative and modern methods, such as drip irrigation and sprinkler, In the rainy season, we do not need to use these means.”

Hamid Al Zaabi added, "Within a year, the number of farms participating in the initiative increased from 145 to 170, and the volume of production reached about 80 tons, after it was 50 tons last year, which indicates that we are on the right path."

He continued, "With the individual effort of us as Emirati farmers, we started our voluntary initiative with a group on the (WhatsApp) application and a group of no more than 16 farmers."

On the role of the awareness initiative, he explained: “We target the students’ category to instill a love of agriculture in them from a young age, and we did this in practice through a number of students planting wheat in one of Abu Dhabi’s schools, where they followed the experiment closely and harvested the crop, grinding and baking grains, and the experience was wonderful.

The main objective of it is to educate generations that our food should be from the harvest of our farms.”

With regard to the seeds that are distributed free of charge to farmers and families, he said: “We are keen to distribute seeds free of charge to farmers, families and individuals. Over the past few years, we have noticed a large spread of home farming, and many are keen to learn more about the mechanisms of farming and its non-traditional methods and how to take care of with it.”

Regarding the organic fertilizers free of chemicals and pesticides, which are used in the cultivation of wheat, Al Zaabi, who owns an organic fertilizer farm in Ajman, confirmed that 80 tons of animal waste, vegetables, fruits and agricultural waste are recycled per month to produce organic fertilizers.

Follow our latest local and sports news and the latest political and economic developments via Google news