UAE oil power farms the desert in quest for food security

UAE oil power farms the desert in quest for food security

SHARJAH, UAE - Against the desert sands of Sharjah, eight green circles stand out as the United Arab Emirates cultivates wheat to improve food security in an arid country that imports some 90% of its food.

The government launched the 400-hectare farm in Mleiha in 2022, using desalinated water for irrigation, as the disruption of war and pandemic heightened concern over the UAE's lack of arable land.

"What pushed wheat farming were the problems with the supply chains in the last couple of years due to the COVID pandemic and the Ukraine-Russia war," Khalifa Alteneiji, chairman of Sharjah's Department of Agriculture and Livestock, told Reuters.

The UAE, a federation of seven emirates, imported 1.7 million metric tonnes of wheat in 2022 with Sharjah accounting for 330,000 tonnes, government figures show.

The Mleiha farm's contribution is expected to be some 1,600 tonnes per year, a step towards the Gulf oil producer's greater ambitions to increase farming.

Officials say the energy costs of producing the 18,000 cubic metres of desalinated water needed per day for irrigation will be proportionately less as the project scales up.

"The cost of this (desalinated) water and of the final product, will hopefully be similar to the market," Alteneiji said.

Eventually, the UAE, which