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Doha: Local agricultural produce is going to get even cheaper as the Ministry of Municipality plans to launch an initiative to reduce local farms' production cost to make their products more competitive against the imported ones, said a top official.
“Under the plan, the ministry will sign an agreement with Mahaseel for Marketing and Agricultural Services Company to provide labour workforce and services to local farms during agricultural seasons, replacing a large number of their permanent workers,” said Director of the Food Security Department at the Ministry of Municipality, Dr. Masoud Jarallah Al Marri.
Speaking to The Peninsula on the sideline of a recent event, he said that the plan is being incorporated in Qatar National Food Security Strategy 2023-30. The strategy is expected to be launched by the end of this month. “The Ministry has planned to sign a contract with Mahaseel to provide agricultural services to local farms. According to the agricultural census of Qatar which was conducted by Qatar University, labour workforce costs the highest to local farms, increasing their production cost,” said Al Marri.
He said that labour workforce is the main reason behind challenges faced by local agricultural produce in competing with imported products, which required constant government support.
“After analysing the study, we found the reason for increasing production cost of local agricultural produce and try to bring about an appropriate solution to the problem,” said Al Marri.
He said this is part of the outcome of agricultural census which was completed recently. “Under the agreement, the labour workforce will be provided necessary skills required for agricultural sector through training courses,” said Al Marri.
Labourers in large numbers are needed during certain periods such as cultivation and harvesting not throughout the year. “The plan is to provide workers to farms as per their need by Mahaseel.
Al Marri said: “The company will also provide agricultural services to farms in a way that they will not need to own heavy machines and operators for agricultural purposes.”
He said that the workshops will be held for farmers to educate them how to reduce production costs by adopting an efficient agricultural management system.
“The ministry is focusing on bringing about appropriate solutions to the problems of agricultural sector, enabling local farms and private sector to come forward to launch their projects at their own,” said Al Marri.
To ensure a sustainable development, he said, government support and subsidies are needed to be reduced with time because it is required only during transactional period and not permanently.
