UAE EYES FOOD SECURITY

With the UAE almost wholly reliant on food imports, food security is a national priority.

In recent months, the COVID-19 pandemic has heightened domestic concerns as global supply chains of imports were disrupted, according to a Euronews report

The crisis also prompted renewed debate about how best to boost local agriculture and foster farming innovation.

Searing summer temperatures, little rainfall and a landscape dominated by arid desert, has meant that the UAE’s agricultural activities have been relatively restricted to small areas.

That could soon change, however, say academics at Abu Dhabi’s Khalifa University, who are developing ‘artificial soil’, made up of almost 90% desert sand.

Their goal is for the product to be used by local, and eventually regional farmers, to grow plants & vegetation.

The soil created in the laboratory resembles the texture, porosity & fertility of soils found in Thailand & Ukraine.

If patent approved, scientists in the capital are optimistic that it has the potential to transform the UAE’s burgeoning home-grown crops sector.

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