Eight green circles stand out in the Sharjah desert, where the UAE grows wheat to improve food security.
The government built a 400-hectare (about a thousand acres) farm in the Mleiha area in 2022 using seawater desalination for irrigation, as unrest caused by the war and the Corona virus pandemic heightened concerns about the lack of arable land in the UAE.
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“What has boosted and given momentum to wheat farming is the supply chain issue in recent years due to the Covid pandemic and the Russo-Ukrainian war,” Khalifa Al-Tunaiji, head of the Sharjah Department of Agriculture and Livestock, told Reuters. .
Government figures show that the UAE imported 1.7 million metric tons of wheat in 2022, with Sharjah’s share reaching 330,000 tons.
The Maliha farm’s contribution is expected to reach about 1,600 tons per year, representing a step towards the oil-producing Gulf state’s larger ambitions to increase agriculture.
Officials say the energy cost of producing the 18,000 cubic meters of desalinated seawater needed per day for irrigation will decrease as the scale of the project increases.
At-Tunayji added: “It is possible that our main problem in the state is, of course, the problem of water. This problem has been overcome. We get desalinated water, even the cost of this water, and the cost of the final product is close to the market price.”
The UAE, host of this year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), plans to produce food that can recycle water and reduce waste.
The plan for the Maliha farm, which does not use pesticides, chemicals or genetically modified seeds, aims to expand it to 1,400 hectares (about 3,460 acres) by 2025 and eventually to 1,900 hectares (4,695 acres).
The farm uses artificial intelligence and thermal imaging to collect weather and soil data to regulate irrigation rates and monitor growth.
Ibrahim Ramadan, director of agriculture, said: “This is a special agricultural platform and it helps me on the farm to determine the amount of watering that has taken place and for the coming days.”
The project includes experimental fields of about 35 different types of wheat from around the world, spread over two hectares, to study their compatibility with the soil and weather of the UAE.
