Without laying a finger on the strawberry - touching the fruit even for a moment would transfer bacteria, decreasing its shelf life - Ahmed Moustafa plucks it from a tall stack of Styrofoam containers brimming with plants. Thin, snakelike tubes jut out of the non-organic soil in the containers and worm their way towards the ceiling, where they join larger tubes that carry water and minerals across the farm. Here is where Al Sulaiteen Agricultural and Industrial Complex (SAIC)'s plans for soilless food production are coming to fruition.
SAIC comprises a 40-hectare farm, with a production potential of about 700 tonnes of vegetables, and a landscaping business. SAIC began using hydroponics, a soilless form of farming, in 2008. It's widely recognised as the best way to overcome the hardships inherent in farming in the Gulf.
For a moment I'm not sure if Moustafa, Al Sulaiteen's CEO of agricultural projects, means to eat the berry himself, or if he'll hand it to me. I don't want to seem overeager. So I withhold my hand until it is painfully obvious he means to place the strawberry in my palm. Plop! There it is: succulent, sugary fruit at its most organic - from farm to consumer in under 10 seconds.
It definitely takes longer than that to bus SAIC produce from the farm almost 20 kilometres northwest of Doha to grocery stores. But the distance isn't much compared with the distances most fruits and vegetables sold in stores travel. Ninety percent of the country's produce is imported, according to the QNFSP. It's unlikely for a buyer to run into a product grown at Al Sulaiteen or another local farm.
"Vegetable production in Qatar is not really profitable," Moustafa asserts. It's an interesting statement, coming from a man who works surrounded by fields stuffed with seeds and blooming broccoli, cauliflower and lettuce plants. But those fields don't hold the future of desert farming in their rows. The expansive, domed greenhouses that rest side-by-side with the open fields do.
It takes a special kind of bravery to tackle agriculture in the arid countryside.
But technology like hydroponics, and sheer willpower, can overcome ecological limitations. Less certain are the problems of economy, says an agricultural entrepreneur working with SAIC, Abraham Kamarck.
The "big constraints" are overpriced plots of land (up to QR10 per sq. metre) and price-setting for local produce, according to Kamarck.
With the due date for the QNFSP's recommendations for the agriculture sector approaching - it plans to hand them over by 2014 - producers consider the QNFSP's potential impact on their industry (Qatar Today's February 2011 cover story investigated the QNFSP). Though agriculture attributes only 1% of Qatar's gross domestic product, the QNFSP's plans to expand it could some day affect most, if not all, consumers and growers.
"At any time, the food security programme could put every single farmer out of business," Kamarck says. This can't be known by producers for certain. But it's an idea that could gnaw at the mind of anyone looking to invest.
He can't assuage all the farmers' fears, but Jonathon Smith, senior advisor to the QNFSP's chairman, says he doesn't see "any successful model" where the government runs agriculture as a business.
"You're going to have major infrastructural things that it kind of takes the government to make the investment, take the risk and take leadership on it," Smith says.
Science as progress
Vital to the success of the QNFSP and Qatari farming in general, hydroponics means growing plants in nutrient-enriched water. Plants can be grown in water with only the assistance of a framework to keep them afloat. However, many hydroponic systems use gravel or a synthetic substance to steady their vegetables.
But SAIC isn't the only technologically advanced grower in Qatar. In addition to more than 10 farms, according to Nasser Saif Al-Kaabi, the Ministry of Environment (MOE)'s Head of Agricultural Research and Extension, the MOE employs hydroponics heavily in its research sector. The soilless system circulates nutrients more consistently than daily watering of fields does. It also uses about 70 to 90% less water than outdoor irrigation, according to SimplyHydro.com.
Moustafa says: "Using hydroponics, we can produce good quality and high yields, and get away from insects and pests."
The concept isn't new. Writings as early as the Ancient Egyptians describe growing plants in water. But the science must be moulded to fit these farmers' needs, and that means preventing tomatoes, peppers and melons from drying in the sun.
Still, the field of hydroponics is evolving. Nazeer Hussain, a salinity expert in the MOE's Department of Agricultural and Water Research, is testing a similar technique called aeroponics. It allows plants' roots to hang suspended from a framework. They devour water dispersed to them as a mist.
Trouble for local entrepreneurs
The MoU between SAIC and Abraham Kamarck grants him a section of the farmland. He uses it to test greenhouse technology for his investment advisory company, Maendeleo Ventures LLC.
Kamarck calls himself a "social entrepreneur". He tries to use money to "do good" in the world - and he's certainly seen enough of it. The 36-year-old US native's entrepreneurial pursuits have pulled him across Europe, to Washington, DC, briefly to Ghana and finally to Qatar. He has big plans for Bahrain, too - "they're giving away land," he says, barely joking - but for now he's staying put.
"There's a major quality difference that hasn't reached Qatar yet," he says. "Like, even the most basic hydroponic supplies are not available, you have to import them." Nasser Al-Kuwari, owner of Al Safwa Farms, also sees Qatar's agricultural economy as supremely difficult. And Al-Kaabi, the MOE's Head of Agricultural Research, says he agrees that it's currently not profitable.
"The farmer is spending a lot" on technology in an unstable market, Al-Kaabi says. It's a risky business.
Price pitfalls
"We have good products, if you go to the Mazrouah market for vegetables," Al-Kaabi says. "But we have a failure in marketing."
Al Mazrouah Yard, the fresh produce market that opened north of the city about a month ago, hits visitors with a combination of smells. Fertilisers and dust mix with the sharp scent of plants. That freshness complements the scene: farmers bustle through a square with overstuffed wheelbarrows. Produce stands surround them, shaded by tent tops. Al-Kuwari's Al Safwa Farms sign draws the eye instantly from the middle of the row. All the vegetables at his stand were grown using greenhouses and hydroponics. Al-Kuwari's eyes gleam as he shows off his cherry tomatoes. They're available in red and yellow.
"They said they wouldn't grow here," he boasts, "but they do."
When the government sets prices for local produce, it causes setbacks for sellers at Al Mazrouah Yard. Kamarck says SAIC sells there and also directly to supermarkets. They sold to Central Market, too, before it closed. For example, they would try to sell tomatoes at QR10 per kg, while the set price for local produce was QR3 per kg.
"Middle men had the negotiating power and were pushing the price down (at Central Market)," he says. "Qatari produce was seen as inferior. The Ministry of Business and Trade has tried to step in to try to save the farmers but really they're hurting them more, because there's no distinguishing quality. Their price sets are based on origin.
"It doesn't make any sense, because 90% of the time they're forcing the farmer to sell at a loss, especially if they're using hydroponics."
The road to future policies
"So what do we do? We obviously need to give a subsidy," says Ishrat Hossain, a Qatar University assistant professor of economics.
About 20 years after government policies towards farmers improved in Saudi Arabia, the agriculture sector had vastly improved, according to a case study by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations in 1998. The industry grew about 12% yearly between 1979 and 1991. Farmers were paid "approximately three times the world market price for wheat," and were able to buy equipment such as fertilisers for much less than their average world prices.
"In Qatar, very, very little is being given by the government," Moustafa says. "Not like in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia or in Oman too, where they get a lot of help and support from the government."
Qatari farmers may not feel that they receive enough monetary assistance, but they do get some, according to Al-Kaabi. Last year the government provided 33 greenhouses, 130 irrigation systems and undisclosed monetary sums to producers. Still, there are many different options that the the authorities could choose - it isn't all about subsidies. The Ministry of Business and Trade or the MOE could provide information to producers and consumers, and act as a quality regulator, Kamarck suggests. But the situation is in the hands of the QNFSP. And the organisation's answer right now? It doesn't know. That's why economists and scientists are still researching the future of the business.
"I hope they will change (things)," farmer Al-Kuwari says. He's on a QNFSP consultant committee for producers.
Since its inception in 2008, he says he doesn't feel the organisation has done anything noticeable to help farmers. Chiefly a planning body, the QNFSP doesn't literally plant seeds in the ground. As Smith of QNFSP puts it, the programme's employees are "spending half of the day in the library and half of the day out on the street interviewing".
Asked what the QNFSP is doing for farmers with concerns that can't wait for a 2015 or 2016 implementation of the recommendations, Smith says they can expect forums for producers to converse directly with their government. Those are set to start in April.
"On January 20 we finally got the opportunity to sign something we've been working on with Texas A&M University," he says. The MoU is "a first phase toward looking for recommendations for agricultural extension. We're putting into the field a comprehensive face-to-face interview with everyone involved in production." In a wider scope, the QNFSP needs to make local food more attractive to consumers. They'll have to prove that produce grown locally is healthier than food shipped across the world, says Smith, and worth paying more for. This, in conjunction with increased marketing regulations and subsidies, could allow local farming to flourish, according to the programme. "We cannot leave prices of food commodities to fluctuate, because this is a necessity for people," Moustafa says. Sitting in his SAIC office in a yellow-and-blue checkered cardigan and tie, pausing after a sip of karak tea, he makes a swift, chopping hand gesture.
He's felt a connection to the farm since he designed it in 1995. He is invested in its, and the country's, future.
"You can do without a computer, without television, without a mobile phone, but you cannot do without food. You must have food," he says.
© Qatar Today 2013
