Qatar Foundation’s Quranic Botanic Garden (QBG) aims to explore innovative strategies for fostering food security in Qatar and the United States Southwest. It will be held in partnership with The University of Arizona, to coincide with the Qatar-US Year of Culture 2021 on September 22 under the theme ‘Fostering Food Security in the Drylands: Innovative Strategies for Qatar and the US Southwest in the Face of Climate Change and Growing Resource Limitations.
Both regions have shared challenges relating to the impact of a changing climate and growing resource limitations, including freshwater have shared challenges relating to the impact of a changing climate and growing resource limitations, including freshwater.
“As both regions share common environmental challenges, both Qatar and the US stand to benefit from joint food security efforts through the cooperative development and adoption of emerging cutting-edge innovations,” Mohamed Hassona, Horticulturist at QBG told The Peninsula.
“The challenges also create valuable opportunities for knowledge-sharing, the exchange of best practices and ways to collaboratively address them. In this webinar, we look forward to working with our colleagues from the US to explore innovative solutions to these challenges that will benefit both Qatar and Southwest,” he added.
The webinar will address food security related topics, including low-water sustainable agricultural practices, controlled-environment engineering in hot and arid lands, vertical farming innovations, use of renewable energy, as well as the incorporation of traditional local heirloom crops and edible native plants to achieve greater resilience in desert food systems.
The webinar will bring together experts from the University of Arizona and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson, as well as experts from the Ministry of Municipality and Environment, Qatar University, Agrico, Qatar Fertiliser Company and the QBG. Qatar announced its Qatar National Food Security Strategy in 2018, aiming to achieve domestic self-sufficiency by cultivating crops, meat and fish within the confines of its resource base to ensure a stable source of perishables in times of crisis. It also ensures that Qatar’s food import strategy is resilient against potential trade shocks and disruptions and that the country can quickly react to an abrupt change in trade partners or a drop in self-sufficiency.
According to Hassona, by hosting webinars, such as the one with University of Arizona, QBG provides the community with the tools and knowledge necessary to become active contributors to Qatar’s food security efforts.
