File photo used for representation only.
The Yards for Selling Local Agricultural Produce commonly known as vegetable markets have been active for the longest period — seven months and a week — during 2020-21 agricultural season.
The new techniques like cold greenhouses provided by the Agricultural Affairs Department at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) helped extend harvesting season of farms greatly during this season.
The markets which reopened in Al Sheehaniya, Al Mazrouha, Al Wakrah, Al Khor Al Zakhira and Al Shamal on October 29, 2020 concluded last week for this season.
A total of 150 local farms participated in the winter markets in this season, providing large quantity of vegetables to the markets for sale.
“Winter markets run for seven months and a week. We entered in summer production of vegetables this year,” said General Supervisor of Agricultural Yards at MME, Abdul Rahman Al Sulaiti.
Speaking to Qatar TV yesterday, Al Sulaiti said that winter vegetable markets opened at night by the beginning of summer from 6:30pm to 10pm.
“The decision for opening the markets at night was taken to avoid the heat during the day. The experience was excellent as the markets attract large number of customers,” said Al Sulaiti.
To a question about the success of this season, he said that the agricultural season 2020-21 was the most successful season since the launch of the winter vegetable markets.
Speaking about the agricultural produce in this season, Al Sulaiti said: “The agricultural produce has been recorded super excellent, expecting up to 30 percent increase in this season. In addition, we entered summer production of vegetables this year.”
Explaining the summer production, he said that it includes vegetables and fruits like sweet melon and water melon. “The summer production from the farms was in limited types and quantity but production began this year which was not in the previous years,” said Al Sulaiti.
He said that most of the agricultural produce of farms in Qatar is produced during winter and during summer there were few produce. To a question about the quality of produce at vegetable markets, he said that at random samples of the vegetables were taken to the laboratory to check the pesticide residue and other requirements to ensure the quality.
