GCC countries have been urged by an expert in the field to grow its share of crops locally to complement its food security strategies alongside imports and investments in foreign agriculture ... as well as set a new focus on the use of water.
Arabian Gulf University (AGU) Water Resources Professor Dr Waleed Zubari outlined the most important challenges and opportunities in the sectors at a recent high-level forum staged in Dubai.
He emphasised the need of these countries to co-ordinate policies to govern production, ensuring that agriculture in the region matches its water supply and, critically, can continue to grow produce locally.
“This will complement the nations’ food security strategies which include food imports and foreign agricultural investments,” said Prof Dr Zubari.
“However, domestic production must be governed by a number of policies and programmes, the most important of which is that cultivation is carried out in accordance with available water resources and that irrigation efficiency is improved.
“Reducing the cultivation of crops that consume large amounts of water, as well as reducing food loss after harvest, will also help contain the challenges faced by Gulf society.”
The GDN reported earlier this year on Bahrain drawing up the blueprint of its food security measures which include revitalising freshwater springs, purchasing agricultural land for public use and creating no-exploitation zones in Bahrain’s waters.
Plans are also underway to increase production capacity of agricultural nurseries across Bahrain as part of an integrated national afforestation plan.
A target to push local production of vegetables from 10pc to 20pc, was also set last year.
Speakers at Dubai’s International Centre for Local Agriculture’s seminar titled ‘The Value of Agricultural Water in Marginal Environments’ summarised the most important challenges and opportunities.
Prof Dr Zubari highlighted the main challenges of the GCC water sector in his keynote address, focusing on the burdens associated with the duality of water and agriculture. He also discussed groundwater over-exploitation and rapid mining, and the inadequate use of treated wastewater, as well as the effects of climate change on the water and agriculture sectors.
“There is rapid mining of non-renewable groundwater, primarily by the agricultural sector, and there are no strategic plans for the post-depletion phase of the water source and alternative water sources for agriculture,” Dr Zubari observed.
“The consequences of groundwater loss include increased water scarcity and water supply costs, loss of strategic contingency reserves, desertification and agricultural land productivity, and loss of agricultural activities as a whole.”
He reviewed the most important sustainability challenges of the agricultural sector and the proposed policies to overcome these. However, he also underlined the existence of over-exploitation of water resources, low water level and salinisation, as well as groundwater pollution by human activities.
“In the field of wastewater, large quantities of treated wastewater are not reused, which represents a major missed opportunity for the GCC countries under the conditions of water scarcity they are experiencing, and in the field of climate change there is additional pressure on the water sector,” he said.
“Rising temperatures will lead to an increase in consumption rates, sea-level rise to saltwater invasion and salinisation of coastal groundwater, and low rainfall to lower surface flows and water recharge.
“Increasing the frequency of extreme events from floods and droughts will also lead to devastating consequences that disrupt the water and agricultural systems.”
The veteran environmentalist also feared that water in general, and groundwater in particular, was not being given its ‘true value’, risking its quantitative and qualitative deterioration.
“The loss will undermine the future sustainability of the agricultural sector itself and its contribution to food security,” he cautioned.
“There is an urgent need to shift from focusing on ‘supply sustainability’ to ‘sustainability of consumption’ using appropriate policy tools.
“If demand management policies are implemented and the transition to a modern agricultural system is implemented, the GCC countries will have higher levels of sustainability for both the water and agriculture sectors,” he said.
raji@gdnmedia.bh
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