The Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) in cooperation and coordination with Mahaseel Company have launched Dhamin (Guarantor) programme for marketing the basic and leafy locally produced vegetables for the second season (2021- 2022), which entails making prior contracts with local producers to purchase their products of vegetables to guarantee them reasonable prices and encourage them to produce, in addition to securing them good income from their work.
Yousef al-Khelaifi, director of the agriculture affairs department at MME, stressed that MME will continue work on developing and improving the level of the marketing programmes of locally vegetables and encourage Qatari farms to increase their production of these. The aim is to help the registered farms increase their income and guarantee them incentive prices through marketing their products.
He pointed out that this season programme will include 12 types of targeted vegetables: tomatoes, cucumber, capsicum, eggplants, Roman lettuce, American lettuce, parsley, green onion, mint, Rocca, green sesame, and dill. The improvements on the programme include extending the agriculture season from November to June, focus on the crops targeted within the agriculture season, and increasing the amounts taken from the farmers by 70% compared to the previous season. He said that the prices will vary from month to month based on the agriculture calendar and season, so as to give farmers good and high prices that are not affected by the fluctuations of the local market. This in turn would focus on improving food security and guarantee farmers a seamless marketing process.
Al-Khelaifi said that this year Mahaseel will receive the first class products (with self-sufficiently percentage of 40%) separate from the second class products (60% self-sufficiency), according to the crops subject of the contracts. He stressed the registration for the second edition of Dhamin programme is set to be launched on September 15 and go on until November 1.
The number of the local farms that benefited from the previous season for 2020- 2021 amounted to 77 farms with more than nine tonnes of vegetables received. However, for this season, the amounts for contracts will be 13 tonnes.
