ABU DHABI // Farmers will soon have two new places to get cheap supplies, under a scheme intended to help them modernise.
The government-run Farmers' Services Centre (FSC) opened one shop last week in Madinat Zayed, in al Gharbia, and a second in Mezaira'a will soon follow. Both will sell fertiliser, seeds, pesticides and farming equipment.
"We're trying to better the quality of production by updating farmers with improved techniques and technologies," said Christopher Hirst, the FSC's chief executive.
FSC members will get a 15 per cent discount on everything in the shops, with steeper savings still on products such as nutrient-enriched animal feed - a offer the centre is pushing as part its recruitment drive.
So far, it says, some 2,600 of the Al Gharbia's 8,500 farmers have joined. This figure is more than its initial target of 4,500. As well as discounts at its shops, membership entitles farmers to free advice services. They also get to sell their produce through the FSC.
"We want to try to give farmers that feeling of ownership with the membership, like in a co-operative-type model," said Mr Hirst.
Fadel al Mansouri, a farmer who sells bell peppers, potatoes, tomatoes and cucumbers with the FSC from his four-hectare farm in Al Ghweifat, said the centre's grocery stores were "better than anything else in the market".
"The prices are always good and I know the quality of their products is high as they are always supervised," he said. He has not yet visited the farm supplies store, but intends to.
Hreif Rashed Hreif says he plans to join the FSC soon, to help sell the lettuces, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, watermelons and chili peppers he grows on his four-hectare farm in Liwa. "It would be an efficient channel to market my products," he said.
Although price is not Mr Hreif's top concern, he said he would start buying from the centre's farm supplies shops "as long as the quality is there".
Although membership is free for any farmer, the FSC's drive targets those in al Gharbia who relied on government aid, such as a costly Rhodes grass subsidy that was phased out in September.
"The largest volume of our vegetables from a full year are from these more sophisticated farms [that are supported by the government] because they're the only ones who have the infrastructure in general to grow [crops] in summer," said Mr Hirst.
cmalek@thenational.ae
