Qatar Fertiliser Company (Qafco), Agrico and Yara International ASA (Norway) signed a co-operation agreement recently to establish a test facility in Qatar to test greenhouse technologies, nutrient management and fertigation solutions.
This, a joint statement said, was with the aim of developing an appropriate hydroponics system best suited for the Qatari climate and with the main objective to achieve the optimum possible results in growing fruits and vegetables in local climate conditions with limited access to water.
Abdulrahman al-Suwaidi, Qafco chief executive officer, Nasser al-Khalaf, general manager, Agrico, and Ivan de Witte, general manager, Yara International ASA Trade Representative office in Qatar, jointly signed the co-operation agreement on behalf of the three companies.
Qafco said it continues its participation in initiatives, which contribute towards Qatar’s goal of agricultural self-sufficiency through the partnership with Yara and Agrico.
The partnership intends to identify an optimum combination of fertiliser blends through various techniques that can help improve the quality and yield of Qatari produce.
Al-Khalaf said, “Agrico is proud to cooperate with Qafco and Yara to further develop and increase the local vegetables production which will play a major role in Qatar 2030 vision of achieving food security in the agriculture sector. We are confident in the cooperation to bring sustainable high yield production all around the year. With this platform we will be able to increase awareness among local farms which will improve their yield and quality by using environmental control greenhouse system and low irrigation consumption.
On his part de Witte said, “Yara is proud to have been a partner to the state of Qatar for nearly 50 years through our shareholding in QAFCO. With this cooperation agreement we make another important commitment to development of Qatar’s agricultural sector. Yara being the world crop nutrition leader and driving innovative and sustainable growth in agricultural sector together with our partners Agrico and Qafco will develop better crop nutrition solutions tailored for Qatar. By means of this and other partnerships we have engaged in, we intend to achieve our ultimate goal to impact the whole Qatar farming sector positively in terms of economic viability and environmental impact.”
The cooperation agreement formalises ongoing efforts by the three entities to support the farming sector in Qatar and demonstrate the impact of improved growing methods and nutrient management.
Over the past months, the entities have already engaged in joined activities to prepare the test facilities. During the next 12 months the parties will operate the ‘Test Facility’ jointly and share the outcome with other stakeholders in Qatar.
