Agriculture
From The Report: Abu Dhabi 2015
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Dates represent Abu Dhabi’s most important commercial crop and agricultural export, with 99,136 tonnes produced in 2013, an increase from 80,461 tonnes a year earlier. Authorities are also encouraging the development of aquaculture as an alternative to fishing, with this segment seeing increased investment as new fish farms start to open in the emirate. Meanwhile the Abu Dhabi Farmers Services Centre, set up in 2009, aims to develop a sustainable agricultural industry and is expected to launch a project based on soil-free farming, which can offer water savings of up to 70%. Moving forward a food products and processing industry cluster at Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi will enable firms to bring agricultural goods to market, with large facilities set to open in the cluster, including several processing plants and a ready-meals factory.

Articles from this Chapter

Overview

Working to increase production, enhance sustainability and improve food security
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Although agriculture comprises only a small proportion of the emirate’s GDP, the authorities regard it as an important sector from a number of perspectives including its potential to aid economic diversification, which is a key element of the Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030, as well as its role in helping to perpetuate key elements of local culture, environment and climate, and to create jobs. The emirate’s government has consequently sought to invest in the sector, with the aim of increasing…

Analysis

With limited land and water resources, innovation is key to boosting agricultural output
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Historically, the development of agriculture in Abu Dhabi has been driven in large part by government investment and support, including the provision of free water and infrastructure, and subsidies for inputs. This approach continues today, with the government playing an important role through organisations such as the Abu Dhabi Farmers Services Centre (ADFSC) and the Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority (ADFCA). In its 2012 policy document for the sector, ADFCA describes itself as a “catalyst to build…

Analysis

Developing and maintaining efficient forms of irrigation
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Agriculture accounted for 71% of water consumption in Abu Dhabi in 2012, including all groundwater and recycled wastewater consumption, according to figures from the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi. Due to its arid climate the UAE has the third-lowest per capita level of renewable fresh water resources in the world, according to World Bank data, and in Abu Dhabi farming is consuming groundwater at around 15 to 20 times its natural recharge rate, threatening to exhaust usable supplies within 10 to…