MME begins campaign for greener desert

Doha: To increase grassland and greenery across the country, the Ministry of Municipality and Environment has launched a massive campaign to distribute seeds and seedlings of wild plants to winter campers for planting them in several areas.

The campaign ‘Man Lbar Ajmal’ (together for more beautiful desert land with green patch) was launched by the Agricultural Research Department at the Ministry in collaboration with the Quranic Botanic Garden (QBG), a member of Qatar Foundation (QF) at a press conference held at the headquarter of Ministry of Municipality and Environment yesterday.

“Under the campaign about 4,000 packets of seeds and 11,000 seedlings of wild plants ‘Al Najila’ quack grass will be distributed to the campers,” said Hassan Al Asmakh, Head of Plant Research Division at Agricultural Research Department, who is heading the campaign.

Al Najila plant spreads its seeds naturally in land and deepens its roots.

“The campaign also aims at distributing about 1,500 seedlings of wild plants including acacia tortilis, acacia ehrenbergia, lycium shawii, acacia nilotica, mauritaina ziziphus, atriplex leucoclada, prosopis cineraria,” said Al Asmakh. About mechanism of distribution of seeds and seedlings, Al Asmakh said that a study will be conducted to assess the need of camp areas as per their geographical location to provide inputs accordingly.

“Each camp will get five to ten seedlings with enough quantity of seeds,” said Al Asmakh.

Leaflets will be distributed to the beneficiaries to educate them about sowing of seeds and planting seedlings and experts will be there to help them in case of any need.

Sheikh Dr Faleh bin Nasser Al Thani, Assistant Under-Secretary for Agriculture and Fisheries Affairs at the Ministry of Municipalities and Environment said that the scarcity of seeds in ‘desert land of green patch’ is one of the hindering factors of the programme of rehabilitation and development of pasture, animal reproduction and stability of this sector.

He pointed out that the research and studies carried out by Agricultural Research Department showed the difficulty of the current situation of natural pasture and the need to intervene to stop the deterioration and depletion of natural resources. “As an alternative way, wild plant species should be cultivated,” said Al Thani.

He noted that these plants consume less water compared to hybrid commercial plants, and they can survive in extreme salinity and drought. “Many of them are considered as land reclamation plants as they prevent soil erosion and desertification,” said Al Thani.

He pointed out that the vegetation areas in Qatar are suffering from deterioration because of overgrazing, lack of rainfall, high temperature, mining activities, urban expansion, the depletion of the stock of seeds in the land and the spread of exotic plants without carrying out the necessary research. “As a result of the rapid expansion of agriculture for the cultivation of fodder to meet the growing needs of animals, the area of natural grazing lands has decreased,” he said.

He explained that decision to start this initiative now is based on two aspects. The first is expectation of rains and second is presence of campers in these areas.

Masoud Jarallah Al Marri, Director of the Agricultural Research Department, said that one of the main objectives of the campaign is to work to raise the ground stock of seeds, since the seeds of wild plants have the ability to stay in the soil for up to more than 15 years.

Fatima Saleh Al Khulaifi, Manager, the Quranic Botanic Garden pointed out that the Garden has an integrated plan to deliver its message, which is based on awareness and education for all educational stages and its all initiatives aimed at preserving the environment.

She pointed out that the Garden provides seedlings wild plants, and it offered 2000 seedlings last year.