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Santhosh Chandran
Doha
With Qatar's weather oscillating between a sweltering summer and a shivering winter in a year, the all-weather greenhouse farming is picking up rapidly among vegetable farmers in the country.
Its advantage of allowing crop cultivation in a controlled environment makes it a perfect fit for a country like Qatar, where temperatures can go as high as 50 degree Celsius in summer and drop below 5 degrees in winters.
Extremes of weather often push most farmlands in Qatar out of use in peak summer and winter. For instance, farmlands in Al Shehaniyah, Salwa and Al Khor have been lying uncultivated since April when the summer heat began to soar.
Now, vegetable farmers in Al Shehaniyah, Umm Salal and Al Khor are in the process of setting up greenhouse complexes to kick-start a more sustainable farming.
Speaking to Qatar Tribune, a senior employee at a vegetable farm in Al Khor said,"Greenhouse cultivation has proven very successful in Qatar's deserts. Greenhouses are ideal for cultivation of a wide range of vegetables that are popular in this region.
This technique is not new to Qatar. Several horticulturists, who have implemented greenhouse farming on a large scale in the country, are familiar with greenhouse cultivation.
However, with support from local authorities and banks, even vegetable farmers are switching to greenhouse farming. They include even expatriates, who have leased barren pieces of land to grow vegetables and fruits.
Argon Gaffoor, Director of agricultural consultancy group Mazrathna, said,"We are receiving a lot of enquiries about the feasibility of greenhouse farming. Many of the farmers have expanded their greenhouses with the support of our team. Given the pace with which all this is happening, I can assure you that greenhouses will constitute more than 50 percent of the total farmland in Qatar before the next summer."
Vegetables including eggplant, potato, beetroot, broccoli, cabbage and many varieties of leafy vegetables are grown in greenhouses in all seasons.
Greenhouses are a one-time investment, which can give returns to the farmers for the next 15 to 20 years.
"We not only offer guidance for greenhouse cultivation, but also supply all the materials required for the greenhouse project from our production unit in Oman," Gaffoor said.
The efforts of the Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation (Kahramaa) to supply water and power to farms in the desert will be a shot in the arm for greenhouse farming.
A wholesale dealer of vegetables and fruits at the Central Market said,"If more local farmers shift to greenhouses, the market will get uninterrupted supply of home-grown produces."
