Doha, October 15 (QNA) - The State of Qatar, represented by the Ministry of Municipality and Agriculture, participated in the celebration of the World Food Day, which falls on October 16 of each year to commemorate the date of the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 1945.

Under the theme "Grow, nourish, sustain. Together. Our actions are our future," the 2021 World Food Day aims to raise awareness of the need to support the transition to more efficient, inclusive, sustainable, and resilient agricultural and food systems for better production, nutrition, environment, and life.

Director of the Food Security Department at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment Dr. Masoud Jarallah Al Marri, who is also Secretary of the National Food Security Committee, said that the National Food Security Strategy represents one of the main objectives related to Qatar National Vision 2030, which aims to achieve sustainable development by 2030, and also seeks to advance development in the State of Qatar by achieving a balance between economic growth and human and natural resources and ensuring the continuation of a decent life for its people, generation after generation.

He explained that the national strategy for food security contributed to achieving many of its objectives, as many initiatives and economic stimulus programs were put forward for the private sector to work on raising the efficiency of food production, raising self-sufficiency rates, and securing food supplies by using renewable energies to implement best practices for the development of the agricultural sector, better use of natural resources, stabilizing agricultural food markets, developing investment in the agricultural field, and providing guarantees for the private sector to invest in this field.

Dr. Al Marri indicated that the National Food Security Strategy in Qatar (2018-2023) aims to achieve an abundance of food through local production, strategic storage, and securing import sources and that food prices are appropriate and accessible to all. He added that the strategy also seeks to provide food of good quality and healthy in compliance with the provisions of Sharia. To achieve these goals, the National Food Security Strategy in Qatar (2018-2023) is based on five main pillars: international trade and logistics, local self-sufficiency, strategic stocks, local markets and supply chains, and research and development.

He shed light on the most prominent initiatives, projects, and the latest achievements in the field of food security, including increasing production and self-sufficiency in agricultural products locally, food security projects, the national dialogue on food systems in the State of Qatar and its outputs, and the food security platform.

In 2020-2021, the agricultural sector, in its various vegetable, animal, and fish fields, has achieved clear steps towards achieving food security, increasing agricultural production and the self-sufficiency rate of agricultural products, as the local production of vegetables jumped from about 66,000 tons, a 24 percent self-sufficiency rate, in 2018 to about 103,000 tons, a 41 percent self-sufficiency rate, noting that the target self-sufficiency rate in 2023 is 70 percent of local vegetables.

The self-sufficiency rate of dates has increased to 86 percent, as the production volume reached about 30,000 tons compared to about 28,000 tons in 2018, and it is expected to reach 95 percent by 2023.

The volume of local production of green fodder increased from 100,000 tons, a 45 percent self-sufficiency rate, in 2018 to 115,000 tons, a 54 percent self-sufficiency rate.

The volume of production of milk and its products maintained the same levels in 2020, as the State of Qatar achieved complete self-sufficiency in milk and its products, a 106 percent self-sufficiency rate, with a production volume of 230,000 tons.

The volume of local production of fresh chicken, the state has maintained the production volume at the same levels, achieving full self-sufficiency in fresh poultry with 28,000 tons production volume, a 128 percent self-sufficiency rate.

For red meat, the volume of production increased to 12,500 tons, achieving a 24 percent self-sufficiency rate compared to about 8,000 tons, a 16 percent self-sufficiency rate in 2018, noting that the target self-sufficiency rate in 2023 is 30 percent of local production of red meat.

The volume of local production of table eggs also increased to 11,000 tons, achieving a 35 percent self-sufficiency rate, compared to about 6,000 tons, a 20 percent self-sufficiency rate in 2018. It is expected to reach a 70 percent self-sufficiency rate of table eggs by 2023.

The volume of fresh fish production has maintained at the same levels during 2019 and 2020 due to the stabilization of the local fishing to preserve the fish stocks in the State of Qatar. It is expected to reach a 90 percent self-sufficiency rate of local fresh fish by 2023 through the contribution of fish farming projects to increase the local production in the country.

Regarding food security projects, many agricultural projects have been proposed to private investors, in coordination between the Ministry of Municipality and Environment and the Technical Committee to encourage the participation of the private sector in the economic development projects, which also contributed to diversifying the fields of local investments in food security projects, including offering ten projects for the production of vegetables in greenhouses with an annual production capacity of 21,000 tons for the ten projects, two projects for the production of organic fertilizers with the total yearly production capacity of about 12,000 tons per year, two projects for the production of concentrated feed with an annual production capacity of about 50,000 tons per year for both of them, and a project for fish farming in floating cages with an annual production capacity of about 2000 tons, and another for shrimp farming with an annual production capacity of about 1,000 tons per year.

Furthermore, it launched ten strategic projects for breeding and fattening local sheep and goats with the minimum production capacity for the total projects is estimated at 1,500 tons of red meat per year through the fattening of 50,000 heads annually. It also launched an initiative to encourage table egg production on Qatari farms in coordination with Qatar Development Bank and an initiative to encourage the cultivation of tilapia fish on Qatari farms, in coordination with Qatar Development Bank, to achieve self-sufficiency in the food security sectors by reducing the gap between supply and demand in the local market.

Concerning the national dialogue on food systems in the State of Qatar, the Food Security Department at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment organized the national dialogue on food systems in the State of Qatar, in the context of preparing for the UN Food Systems Summit to be held in September 2021, as one of the hundreds of dialogues that were held around the world. The dialogue focused on four tracks: the resilience and flexibility of food systems, production with a positive impact on nature, fair and equal opportunities in trade, and the introduction of information technology in a food safety inspection.

As for the food security platform, the establishment of the national food security database has been completed, which helps monitor food security conditions and conduct the necessary analyzes, which contributes significantly to taking appropriate decisions and developing the required plans and strategies. (QNA)