DUBAI // The Government must spend more on research and development to boost food production and make it more efficient, experts say.
Ray Moule, the technical director at the Farmers’ Services Centre – responsible for modernising Abu Dhabi farms – said existing funds to promote agricultural schemes were being wasted because of a lack of support and education for farmers.
Mr Moule pointed to the financial support made available to encourage farmers to adopt water-conserving systems, such as hydroponics.
He said these moves were failing because there was a lack of understanding among farmers about the systems.
“We have 24,000 farmers in Abu Dhabi and it is very important that we have a useful R&D facility,” Mr Moule said on the second and final day of the World Food Security Summit in Dubai on Monday.
“Here in the UAE, I find that in my work research and development is not particularly strong. There are a number of facilities available but their use to support partners and basic producers is not very effective or effectively used.”
But research and development alone will not create substantial results, he added.
“We need a lot of support to move the basic production sector forward,” Mr Moule said.
“We need to foster the development of an ‘innovation ecosystem’. If we have R&D, it needs to be a complete system and we need to be researching things that will be useful and have a commercial aspect.”
He said more support would also help to educate farmers about technologies and irrigation systems, as many of them were still being used in a very inefficient way.
“A big issue for me is that if you come up with a great innovative idea but it is too complicated to use, nobody will take it on because they can’t understand it,” Mr Moule said.
“For instance, we all need to save water so we use hydroponics. Here, too many people are trying to get involved in it without really understanding the technology.
“The Government puts their money into it and it is failing because we simply can’t make it simple enough for people to understand and manage it.”
He said new ideas had to be easy to manage. “We need to encourage farmers to understand this process, otherwise there’s no sustainability.
“Poor management of date palms in Abu Dhabi has led to mounting problems with pest and disease infections and there is now a serious need for change.”
Mr Moule said farmers greatly overwatered palm trees and more research and education would teach them how to do it properly.
“There is a strong demand for change,” he said. “We’re working to introduce good agricultural practices and consumers are demanding higher-quality products, so we train farmers every week for better tree management. All farms have these big problems.”
Mr Moule added that different types of technology to boost agriculture in the UAE needed to be researched and developed now.
“Low technology involves what is the best type of vegetable to grow,” he said.
“Medium is the development of a controlled release of fertilisers and high includes the use of molecular markers to select specific traits for improved breeding programmes, like for date palms.
“All of these levels need support and attention and we need to look at what local producers need.”
He said although it may challenge current thinking, it would benefit the industry.
“We need the Government to set long-term realistic policies for the future,” Mr Moule said. “We need to inform, educate, support and improve farmer practice.
“There’s a big future for agriculture here if supported in the right way and we can develop something worthwhile, but we need to make sure we have full support throughout the whole value chain.”
Speakers at the summit also discussed the issue of water scarcity. Only recently have Arabian Gulf countries noticed the gravity of the situation and what it means for the future, they said.
“Water has to be produced through desalination of seawater or groundwater, whose quality isn’t fantastic,” said Thorsten Hartmann, director of Europe, Middle East and Africa at Canadean Research.
“Governments have created measures through legislation and proactive actions to guard those resources.”
cmalek@thenational.ae
