Image used for representation.
DOHA: Qatar will become self-sufficient in fresh meat by producing 100 percent of its requirement by the end of the current year besides producing 20 percent of frozen meat, said Minister of Municipality and Environment H E Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Rumaihi.
The Gulf crisis helped Qataris increase food production including poultry products, which surged from 40percent to 80 percent, the Minister said in an interview with Qatar Tv Al Borwaz programme. He Minister pointed out that there is around 1.5 million of livestock in Qatar currently, which include 40,000 cows and 70,000 camels. The Ministry of Municipality and Environment provides farmers with all the support and assistance they require for the increase of production of livestock and breeding.
“Recently, the ministry revoked the license of 44 farms because owners were not using them for the designated jobs,” the Minister said. To a question about how the government faced the impact of the siege specially in the initial days, he said that the government had already planned as to how it would deal the crisis and for emergency situation. The plan had been worked out two years ago.
Al Rumaihi pointed out that the private sector also played a vital role in mitigating the crisis and their role should be appreciated, adding that they started importing items immediately from other markets in cooperation with the national carrier Qatar Airways, Milaha Company. The Minister said that the Private Engineering Office has done great achievement in the decoration and maintenance of the Corniche and the red road beside reconstruction of Al Bedaa Park, which has been extended to Wadi Al Sail. The red road needs special care and every week it has to be washed to maintain its colour, said the Minister.
Regarding the ministry’s achievement in 2017, he said in 2017 unjust siege was imposed. “However, efforts at all levels and all municipalities were doubled during this period,” he added. One of the major achievements was the launch of the master plan and urban planning, and highway projects, which were completed in cooperation with Public Work Authority (Ashghal). Today, every national of the country can have online access to his plots of land to know about its use for an appropriate purpose in the coming years - commercial, residential, industrial or service. The Ministry currently provides 318 e-services and made the building licenses easier than before.
“Most important achievement is that we managed to double our livestock and agricultural products and we launched projects for fish farming with each of them has an area of 1sqkm and they are located 26km away from the Qatari border, in Qatar’s regional water with production capacity of 200 tonnes of fish,” he said.
