The Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy's (SC) Tree Nursery, featuring a turf spanning an area of 425,000sqm, will also produce more than 1.2mn sqm of landscape grass (Paspalum vaginatum Platinum TE or known as ‘summer grass’) annually, making it the biggest landscape turf farm in the world. This grass will be harvested two or three times per year.
The turf being grown at the more than 880,000sqm nursery in the Umm Slal area north of Doha is unique since it was developed in Qatar specifically to withstand both the country’s climate year-round and the rigours of a tournament as competitive as the FIFA World Cup, SC’s project manager engineer Yasser al-Mulla told the media yesterday during a site visit.
A team follows a calendar of operations regularly to monitor and ensure the maintenance of the grass is in place. Once ready for harvesting, the grass will be rolled and load into a truck or trailer for transporting to proper destinations.
The grass has been purchased from the US (Dr John Holmes owns the patent) with intellectual property rights to multiply it for use in various venues in Qatar.
“This project is also a great example of how the State is achieving self-sufficiency across various sectors and industries, as it will provide all the turf required for tournament stadiums and their surrounding precincts,” SC secretary general Hassan al-Thawadi said.
