General Supervisor of Agricultural Yards at MME, Abdul Rahman Al Sulaiti
Doha: The agricultural yards affiliated with the Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) are attracting a big number of customers as the current period is considered as peak of local agricultural production.
They also have achieved huge success in boosting the sale of local farm produce. “The sales in yards are high, especially as current period is the peak of agricultural production, therefore all vegetables are available at the yards in large quantities and there is no shortage,” said General Supervisor of the Agricultural Yards at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment, Abdul Rahman Al Sulaiti.
He further told The Peninsula: “Despite this exceptional conditions due to coronavirus pandemic, the number of local farms increased to 150 compared to 130 in the previous season. These farms are distributed in five yards namely Sheehaniya, Al Mazrouha, Al Wakrah, Al Khor-Al Thakhira and Al Shamal.”
The markets enable farmers to sell their produce directly to the customers without middlemen so they can get good yields for their hard work and investments. The Ministry supports local farms with different ways encouraging them to increase the produce which helps in creating healthy competition in the market.
Al Sulaiti said that with the increase in demand from customers, new farms have joined to meet the needs of residents, expressing hope that the season will continue until the end of April and might continue until May 2021, depending on agricultural production.
Although there is an increase in the number of customers, the markets are strictly adhering to the preventive and precautionary measures to curb the spread of COVID-19.
General Supervisor of the Agricultural Yards at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment, Abdul Rahman Al Sulaiti, pointed out that that the Ministry of Municipality and Environment provides boxes, seeds and fertilizers to farms participating in the yards free of charge, in order to encourage them to increase production.
He said that the prices are less in these yards by about 30 percent compared to other outlets.
He emphasised the success of the ‘yards experiment’ during the past years, due to the high quality of the vegetables offered to residents through them in light of an advanced marketing method followed by the Ministry to ensure access to good products at reasonable prices. The agricultural produce is classified into grades and sold to the customers at lower prices.
According to the progress report of all winter vegetable markets 2012-20 released by the MME recently, the markets since their establishment in 2012 sold 47,242 tonnes locally grown vegetables, 21,356 tonnes fruits, 20,1555 country chicken and birds, 736 tonnes fish, 103,673 crates of eggs and 13,089kg honey.
