In the Sharjah desert, eight green circles stand out as the UAE grows wheat to improve food security. The government built the Mleiha farm on an area of 400 hectares (about a thousand acres) in the Mleiha area in 2022, using seawater desalination for irrigation, as the turmoil caused by the war and the pandemic increased concern about the UAE’s lack of arable land. The farm’s contribution is expected to be around 1,600 tons per year, representing a step toward the oil-producing Gulf state’s larger ambitions to increase agriculture.
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According to government figures, the UAE imported 1.7 million metric tons of wheat in 2022, with Sharjah accounting for 330,000 tons of that total.
The energy costs of producing the 18,000 cubic meters of desalinated seawater required per day for irrigation will decrease relative to the project’s scale, according to officials.
The UAE, which will host the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 28) this year, intends to produce food that can be recycled and waste reduced.
The Mleiha farm, which is free of pesticides, chemicals, and genetically modified seeds, is planned to grow to 1,400 hectares (about 3,460 acres) by 2025, and then to 1,900 hectares (4,695 acres).
The farm collects weather and soil data using artificial intelligence and thermal imaging to regulate irrigation rates and monitor growth.
In December 2022, the UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment, Maryam Al Muhairi, announced that directives had been issued to government agencies such as the armed forces and medical authorities to purchase local agricultural products in order to support efforts to use technology to develop agriculture in the desert country.
Moreover, Al Muhairi told the Global Policy Conference in Abu Dhabi that her country, which imports 90 percent of its food, decided during its latest annual meeting to support domestic production while maintaining a trade-openness policy.
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