In the era of smartphones and social media, in which many simply order groceries through a delivery app, the disconnect between humans and farms has never felt so pronounced.
This may be about to change, as the future of farming takes shape in Abu Dhabi. An agricultural community, known as Qitaf City, twice the size of Monaco is being developed in Abu Dhabi to help boost the country's efforts to tackle food security.
At four million square metres, the upcoming project will include villas, town houses and Emirati housing with farms alongside AgriTech projects.
Shamsa Alfahim, chief executive of Abu Dhabi National Investment and Development (ADID) and managing director of Qitaf Holding, spoke to The National about the ambitious plans. She said she hopes to develop a community by attracting those who are interested in taking up farming while incorporating the latest technologies.
“We're hopefully trying to target different university students or people who are interested in agriculture, and be able to give them this farm for their own use and giving them to the market,” she said, speaking to The National at Global Food Week.
In a rapidly modernising country which has put AI at the forefront, the hope is the project will bring Emiratis back to their roots and allow them to contribute to the country's growing food ecosystem.
“There's something very humble about being in this kind of ecosystem because it does ground you to your roots. It's not just agriculture any more – there's also aquaculture and agritech,” she said.
The first project starting in the agriculture city will be growing potatoes using solar panels as part of the laboratory process.
Urgent need
Months of supply chain instability with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz underlined the importance of food security for the UAE, a country that imports a majority of its food from abroad. The goal is to create a strategic hub for food security in Abu Dhabi.
“We wanted to launch Qitaf to battle these new circumstances because we want to be resilient and self-sufficient within the UAE,” said Ms Alfahim.
Qitaf City will be about 40 minutes from Abu Dhabi city, Al Ain and Dubai's Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC). The area, known as Al Haffar, is part of a wider master plan that includes a sports city. Etihad Rail's track runs alongside it, and in the future, she says, freight rail access will play a key role in logistics.
“The new Etihad railway is going to pass by the area where Qitaf is located within Al Haffar city. So in terms of logistics it's going to be very strategically located because there's a very easy route of being able to transport the produce from Qitaf to other places in the UAE."
A new chapter
Qitaf Holding has recently been established as the agricultural arm of ADID to “create an environment for food security” in the country. The agriculture city project is slated to launch in February.
“The bigger master plan is actually creating a sustainable city that encompasses lots of different health points,” Ms Alfahim said. “A part of it is going to be a sports city, another is going to be a medical city, and the large majority is going to be housing and estates for the local community.”
Qitaf Holding is also working with AG Groups on large-scale projects across countries in Africa and Asia. They launched a green corridor between Tanzania and the UAE during Global Food Week.
“We can connect with farmers in Tanzania, give them a platform for exchanging their products, bring the their products to the UAE for processing and manufacturing, and re-export it from here,” said Ms Alfahim.
“It's going to create a whole system. We want to do the same thing with Madagascar where we can bring vanilla from Madagascar into the UAE.”
