Officials and local farmers at a modal polycarbonate house for drying dates set up at Agricultural Research Center in Rawdat Al Faras run by the Ministry of Municipality and Environment.
DOHA: The Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) represented by Agricultural Research Department has educated farmers about a new technique for dates drying which cuts drying time, reduces waste and increases the quality of the product to increase self-sufficiency in dates production of the country.
A group of local farmers were taken yesterday to a model polycarbonate sheet-covered house set up at an Agricultural Research Center in Rawdat Al Faras run by the MME to educate them about the benefits of new technology.
“The technique is using a polycarbonate sheet covered house which helps reduce the wastage of dates to two percent from up to 50 percent in traditional way of drying dates under direct sun,” Hasan Ibrahim Al Asmakh, Head of Plan Research Department at the Ministry told the Peninsula on the sidelines of the event.
The house is covered with solid polycarbonate sheet and equipped with a powerful automated exhaust fan to maintain the controlled environment inside the facility. The facility with multiple rustproof iron racks and shelves is equipped with wooden frame to dray maximum quantity of dates.
Al Asmakh said that the model poly-carbonate house is deigned to dray 1000kg dates at a time. “We encourage the bigger farmers which produce huge quantity of dates to set up their own polycarbonate houses as they are not expensive and for small farmers we plan to set up same facilities at the services centers of Agricultural Affairs Department across the country,” said Al Asmakh.
He said in poly-carbonate houses, Al Shisi dates dried fastest within three days followed by the variety of Al Lulu, Al Khazrawi and Nabtussaif dates that took four days, however, Al Khalas and Al Khanizi dates dried in five days.
He said the main purpose of organizing this activity was to reduce foreign imports and increase national dates production which will in turn support the national economy, in addition to introducing the farmers and farm owners to the unique techniques to dry dates through specialized rooms.
Director of Agricultural Research Department Hamad Sakit Al Shammari said the trip was aimed to introduce farmers to the techniques of drying dates and is a continuation to the Dates Festival which was organized recently by the ministry which requires finding modern techniques to dry dates effectively and quickly.
