Paper Title
ADDRESSING QATAR’S CHALLENGES OF SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE FOR FOOD SECURITY
Abstract
Qatar faces numerous challenges in practicing agriculture to ensure national food security targets through localized production.The country wants to reduce its reliance on international food supply chains. As initial steps, it has started promoting outdoor and indoor controlled environment agriculturealongside the development of the dairy and poultry industry. Research is encouragedfor resource optimization through finetuning Qatar-specific agriculture best management practices (AgBMPs) for horticultural crops. Precision agriculture techniques and technologies are being developed to support sustainable and smart agriculture in the country. This paper encompasses efforts for achieving self-reliance in resource sustainability through precision agriculture techniques for localized (on-farm and indoor greenhouses) production of horticultural crops. The outreach activitiesinclude capacity building of farm workers and agricultural education of new generations to understand real-time challenges and find possible solutions to real-world problems regardingpracticing sustainable and smart agriculture in Qatar leading to ensuring the ultimate goal of practicing sustainable agriculture for national food security initiatives.
Keywords: Food Security, Resource Sustainability, Localized Production, Self-Reliance, Precision Agriculture.