UAE farms switch to organic

ALKESH SHARMA / Emirates Business

Moving at a fast pace towards ensuring food security and long-term sustainability in the farm industry, UAE has taken firm strides towards organic farming. This smart switch from the traditional farming practices to organic way of cultivating is being seen as a move aimed towards devising solutions to adversities including harsh climatic conditions, saline soil and scarcity of fresh water.
Abu Dhabi farms are leading the Emirates with maximum area under agriculture and in adopting organic practices of raising crops. Vegetables like tomatoes, eggplants, sweet potatoes and various green-leafy ones are currently under cultivation in the Emirate.
“Over the insistence of one of my colleagues, I started following organic farming at my farms two years back just on the pilot basis. Initially, I was not sure about the outcome so I implemented it in only one farm, spreading over six-hectares. Results were good and now I am following this innovative practice of farming in six of my ten farms and soon I will expand it over the remaining ones,” Abbud Mohammed, member of the Abu Dhabi Farmers’ Services Centre and one of the leading agriculturists of UAE, told Emirates Business.
Mohammed said the outcome of organic farming is a crop that is ultra-rich in nutrients and has comparatively longer shelf-life. However, he maintains that it is not the segment for those who are looking forward to instant economic gratification.
“You need to have patience; first couple of trials could go wrong. But if you implement everything judiciously, especially watering and sowing, then one can expect good savings. I advise small farmers to refrain from doing experiments as it could incur huge financial loss. We can adopt already-proven revolutionary techniques like crop rotation, mixed cropping and companion planting to ensure good yields,” he pointed out.
One major problem that farmers in the UAE are facing while pursuing organic farming is the sourcing of good-quality organic seeds.
“Usually we are ordering organic seeds from European market, particularly from Germany. We are not sure about their quality and sometimes they are not up-to-the-mark. Though many UAE vendors have started trading in organic seeds but we still need big wholesale market of organic seeds in the region,” Asif Ali, Jordanian-American organic crop trader, who is running his business from Mushrif Mall in Abu Dhabi, told Emirates Business.
He added, “Dubai is the biggest market of organic crops in the UAE. Presence of huge number western expats is fuelling this industry and it is closely followed by Abu Dhabi. Also, selection of the right crop is the key to success for organic farming; like sweet potatoes, which are water efficient and good for sandy soils, are well suited for farmers to step into the world of organic cropping.”
UAE’s organic farmers are using fertilisers of organic origin like compost, manure and green manure, and they also nurture natural insect predators in the farmlands. Of late, many start-ups have come up in the UAE that are involved in the cultivation and trading of organic crops in the Emirates.