The Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) has plans to expand the cultivation of animal fodder in the country to fully cover domestic demands, an official said.
Speaking to local Arabic daily Arrayah, Hayil Mohamed al-Wawi, agriculture expert and head of the crops and fodder unit at the MME, said such plans would help in reducing imports and also help better utilise water in the cultivation of suitable types of green fodder.
He said that in the past, the MME had worked on experimenting with a number of types of green fodder including smooth cactus, which have high productivity rates and uses 50% less water than other conventional green fodder crops. It is also more resistant to diseases compared to other plants.
The official said that such experiments have very high rates of success and leads to high rates in production.
He also stressed that the MME provides seeds, seedlings and technical support to those farmers who are willing to adopt these methods and plant such crops.
Meanwhile, Hassan Ibrahim al-Asmagh, head of the plan research section at the MME’s Agriculture Research Department, said it recently worked on expanding the cultivation of the smooth types of prickly pears, which have good tolerance to dry conditions and consumes less water. It also has high productivity in the country.
He stressed that it is a good plant for fodder and a suitable nutrient to animals. The department has introduced 38 types of this plant from different countries to study and see how they could be adapted to the Qatari environment. The species is currently planted successfully in 13 farms around the country and the department provides the farmers with the saplings free of charge, in addition to all the necessary technical support.
