The State of Qatar has maintained the first Arab position in the indicators of achieving food security, and it jumped to 13th place globally after it was ranked 22nd in 2018, according to the World Food Security Index issued in December 2019, which is based on three sub-indicators including consumer’s ability to afford food, food availability, and food safety and quality.
Last year, the State launched strategic projects to support food security, and made great achievements in this context.
This was highlighted during a press conference today in which Sheikh Dr. Falih bin Nasser Al Thani, Assistant Undersecretary for Agriculture and Fisheries Affairs at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment and a number of officials in the sector spoke about outcome of the implementation of the National Strategic Plan for Food Security in the state for 2019.
Sheikh Dr. Falih bin Nasser Al -Thani emphasized that the Ministry, represented by the agriculture and fisheries affairs sector, had made great achievements in the field of food security and self-sufficiency as a result of implementing many national strategic projects during the past year, represented by a significant increase in agricultural production, which in turn contributed to raising self-sufficiency ratio in a number of different commodities.
He reviewed the most important achievements and initiatives that were taken during the past year through the States efforts to advance agricultural production to achieve the desired food security, which contributed to supporting the agricultural sector towards realizing great successes during the recent period, indicating that the agricultural sector has made great strides towards achieving food security , in various agricultural, plant, livestock and fish fields.
He said that during the year 2019, the Ministry of Municipality and Environment launched several initiatives and projects for private sector investors, where (10) projects for the production of vegetables in greenhouses were presented with an annual production capacity of about (21) thousand tons for all of them, in addition to (4) projects concerned with production of green fodder with treated wastewater with an annual production capacity of about (17) thousand tons for the four projects.
Two projects were also launched for the production of concentrated feed with an annual production capacity of about (50) thousand tons, while for organic fertilizers two projects were also launched with an annual production capacity of about (12) thousand tons for the two projects.
Regarding dairy production, Sheikh Falih Bin Nasser Al -Thani said that two projects were also launched to produce camel milk with an annual capacity of about 3 thousand tons for the two projects. Also, 4 projects were proposed for the production of table eggs in farms, funded by the Qatar Development Bank, with a capacity of about (180) million eggs annually, as well as two projects for fish farming in floating cages with a production capacity of about (4000) tons for the two projects, besides a project for shrimp farming with a production capacity an annual amount of about (1000) tons.
The Assistant Undersecretary for Agriculture and Fisheries Affairs touched on the most prominent initiatives and assistance provided by the Ministry of Municipal and Environment to local producers, including the provision of concentrated feed for livestock breeders and livestock production requirements, in addition to supporting municipal poultry fortifications in farms, and supporting farms with agricultural production requirements such as seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and marketing packing, while fishermen were supported with a number of fish and snow refrigerators.
For his part, Masoud Jarallah Al-Marri, Director of the Ministry of Food Security, said that the State of Qatar maintained the first rank in the Arab world, and jumped to the 13th position globally after it was ranked 22 in 2018, according to the World Food Security Index last December.
He noted that the measurement of the general index of food security depends on three sub-indicators, which are the consumers ability to bear the cost of food, the availability of food, and the safety and quality of food, explaining in this context that Qatar is the first Arab and global according to the sub-index on the consumers ability to bear the cost of food, and the third is Arab , 38 globally according to the sub-index on food availability, the first in the Arab world, and 13 globally, according to the sub-index on food safety and quality.
Al-Marri pointed out that this remarkable jump from 22nd to 13th globally in just one year, after the adoption of the National Food Security Strategy, which was adopted in 2018, is an indication that this national plan has contributed significantly to achieving food self-sufficiency, with the aim of improving the level of food security in the country.
He noted that the National Food Security Strategy depends on four important pillars that include local production, internal supply chains, international trade, logistics, and strategic storage.
He stressed that the local production pillar is considered one of the strongest pillars as it is achieving growth in line with the implementation plan of the food security strategy, while the pillar of internal supply chains has made satisfactory progress, as the data indicate the success of the marketing programs followed in increasing the rates of marketing local products, in addition to establishing Mahaseel company which is expected to contribute to strengthening the domestic market and internal supply chains.
With regard to the international trade and logistics, he said that it requires diversification of the import sources of food commodities to avoid interruption, adding that a plan has been developed in this regard and its experience on the ground, while with regard to the strategic storage, important steps have been taken to raise the strategic stock of the State of basics commodities in line with what is stated in the strategy.