Dubai: A United Nations agency is working with water-scarce UAE, which is heavily dependent on imported food, to develop greenhouses to save water and boost food security, an expert said.
Greenhouses use only 10 per cent of the water needed to produce the same yields from open farming, said Pasquale Steduto, deputy regional representative for the Near East and North Africa at the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO).
They work by recycling water - normally lost in plant transpiration and evaporation in the open - in contained spaces where farming and climate conditions are controlled.
Steduto said the FAO and the Ministry of Environment and Water (MoEW) are “collaborating to use greenhouses as much as possible to save water while producing food”.
His comments came on Thursday on the sidelines of a Dubai-based UN conference on combating desertification in the Arab region.
Steduto said greenhouses could yield “significant changes” in the UAE in a decade.
He said a proposal to develop greenhouses as a conservation and security strategy is expected to take shape “in the next few months”. He added “public-private-partnerships” between a number of government bodies and industry will probably be needed.
“Together we’re trying to make full studies, to present an environment and business plan,” Steduto said.
Produce from relatively small plants or trees - such as tomatoes, grapes, citrus fruits and “the usual salad line” - are suited to greenhouse farming, the FAO official added.
The projects will only require roughly one-tenth of the water need to produce the same results in open farming. Water use is a concern in the UAE, where only 500 cubic metres of fresh water is available per person per year. The country heavily uses desalinated seawater and treated wastewater for industrial and home use.
To make projects more viable, solar power can be used to run the greenhouses, taking stress of the main grid, he said.
Also, the UAE imports about 60-70 per cent of its food, Steduto added.
“Imports are fine as long as you can buy food and it’s accessible. But the financial crisis in 2009 shows you can be left vulnerable. The international market has volatile, oscillating prices… It’s not by chance Qatar [for example] is trying to produce its own food.”
However, large-scale local production is a huge challenge given the dry, desert conditions in the UAE. And that is where greenhouses can play an important role, Steduto said.
Advances in new technology and prudent management practices are making greenhouses an attractive option in food security and water conservation. “You can, in some cases, even have early production as the conditions are controlled… The beauty of the system is you cut down on water demand,” he added.
To convince farmers to buy-in to greenhouses, the government could subsidise some costs to encourage them to adopt the practice, Steduto said.
Gulf News was not able to reach MoEW officials for an immediate comment by the time of going to press on Thursday.
