‘Australia, Qatar working together’

Australia and Qatar are working closely with each other to attain food security for the latter, Australian ambassador Axel Wabenhorst told Gulf Times yesterday.He was speaking on the sidelines of a roundtable meeting on “Food security and the Australian agricultural experience” held at the Australian embassy.“Australia has many places where weather conditions are similar to those in Qatar which could improve its food security by adopting some of the technologies, especially those applied in the central Australian region comprising arid zones,” he explained.The ambassador said Australia could achieve success in agricultural production as the vegetation of its food producing areas suited the local weather conditions whereas Qatar has been experiencing mounting challenges on account of prolonged adverse weather conditions every year.“Qatar is committed to increasing its agricultural production in the coming years and proper application of a combination of methods, practised in different terrains elsewhere in the world, as is being done in Australia, may go a long way in generating more yield on the Qatar fields.”Australia, he said, has rich expertise and experience in cultivating its arid zones and using such experiences and practices will help Qatar in enhancing its agricultural productivity in coming years.While hailing Qatar’s Hassad Food for their active involvement in boosting actives in the food sector in Australia, Wabenhorst said the company has shown its commitment to Qatar’s food security issues by owning nine farms in three states in his country. Hassad Australia, a company promoted by Hassad Food, has activities in a total land area exceeding 152,000 hectares. The company’s annual production is around 130,000 tonnes of grain, and 160,000 heads of sheep.