UAE-ENVIRONMENT: Costly drive to combat desertification

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Att.Editors: The following item is by the United Arab Emirates news agency (WAM)

ABU DHABI, Jun 2 2003 (IPS) - The United Arab Emirates (UAE), which will host a global anti-desertification conference next week, is pushing ahead with an expensive afforestation program to achieve self-sufficiency in most farm products.

The drive is spearheaded by President Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, a vehement proponent of agriculture and winner of several international awards in environment, the ‘Gulf New’ said in a report.

The campaign is intended to pump life into the lifeless desert, protect the environment, stop desertification, expand farming areas and achieve food self-sufficiency besides exporting farm surplus.

Officials will present this week a report on such a process, which is within an economic diversification program aimed at easing reliance on oil export earnings.

The report will be presented by the Federal Environment Agency (FEA) to the Asian Conference of the UN Convention for Fighting Desertification, due to be held in Abu Dhabi June 6-7.

Figures by the Ministry of Planning and the Central Bank showed the UAE has pumped around Dh8.3 billion ($2.3 billion) into the farming sector over the past five years. The investments do not include allocations for greening and forestation projects ordered by the President as part of his anti-desert and environment drive. Such funds have turned the farming sector from a negligible part of the economy into a major component of the gross domestic product, standing at nearly four percent last year.

The sector has also recorded steady growth rates over the past years, surpassing most other non-oil sectors. From Dh6.3 billion ($1.7 billion) in 1998, the agricultural sector’s contribution to the GDP also grew to around Dh7.5 billion ($2.04 billion) in 1999, to Dh9.04 billion ($2.46 billion) in 2000, to Dh9.7 billion ($2.65 billion) in 2001 and Dh10.5 billion ($2.86 billion) in 2002.

In size, the UAE’s cultivated areas have peaked at nearly 2.41 million donums (2,500 square kilometers), almost four times Bahrain’s area. But those areas do not include greening and forestation projects, which are spreading all over the UAE and burying large parts of the desert to ease the heat, stop desertification and pump fresh blood into the wildlife that has sharply eroded over the past decades.

"The UAE is involved in one of the biggest forestation, environment, and farming programs in the region. The process will gain momentum in future in line with the instructions of Sheikh Zayed to conquer the desert," said a source at FEA.

"The UAE is already proud of what it has achieved in such programs considering the challenges of its harsh weather and nature. If you look at farming areas and production, you will realize how much effort has been involved in this process."

According to Ministry of Planning figures, the UAE has become one of the biggest date producers in the world, with the number of palm trees exceeding 40 million at the end of last year. They include what the ministry’s report termed as 16.3 million productive trees, yielding over 757,000 tons of date with a value of more than Dh1.9 billion ($517 million) in 2002.

Although they are inhabitant to cold and fertile areas, lime and other citrus fruits emerged as the second biggest crop, with the number of trees standing at around 325,000 producing nearly 22,000 tons. Another key product is mango, with nearly 136,000 trees and an output of 9,100 tons last year.

The report showed the UAE also produced other products alien to the desert such as almond, fig, grape, banana, pepper, radish, parsley, lettuce and okra. Farming programs, heavily financed by the government, have also produced substantial results in vegetable cultivation, with total production standing at nearly 580,000 tons in 2000-2001.

Tomato was by large the biggest product, with an output of 331,000 tons during 2000-2001, valued at Dh513 million ($140 million). Other key products included around 34,500 tons of onion, 28,500 tons of cabbage, 27,400 tons of squash, 24,000 tons of cucumber, 20,230 tons of eggplant, 16,500 tons of Jew’s mallow, 12,500 tons of cauliflower, 11,500 tons of potato, 7,500 tons of radish, and more than 15,000 tons of pepper, parsley, lettuce, carrot, bean and okra.

As a whole, the value of the UAE’s plant and animal production totaled around Dh4.8 billion ($1.3 billion) and Dh1.57 billion ($427 million) respectively in 2001.Fish output was valued at around Dh1.11 billion ($302 million).

In animal production, the UAE has around 207,446 camels including nearly 178,308 females used mainly in the production of milk and meat.