UAE Farmers Council’s ninth meeting has reviewed the latest developments in the national agricultural sector and discussed the Ministry’s initiatives to promote its sustainable growth.
The meeting, chaired by UAE Minister of Climate Change and the Environment Ms. Mariam bint Mohammed Almheiri, also focused on identifying the needs of the farmers to increase domestic productivity and thereby optimize imports.
The meeting, held in Fujairah, was attended by several high-ranking officials including Mr. Mohammed Saeed Al Nuaimi, Acting Undersecretary of the Ministry, and Mr. Mohammed Mousa Alameeri, Assistant Undersecretary for the Food Diversity Sector.
The meeting was also attended by representatives of farmers who have experience and knowledge of the UAE’s agricultural areas, as well as district managers, and the secretariat of the Farmers’ Council.
Mariam bint Mohammed Almheiri UAE Minister Climate Change & Environment
“The UAE leadership places utmost importance on supporting farmers to enhance the sustainability of the agricultural and food sector, ensure national food security, and address climate change. The transformation of the agricultural sector to make it more sustainable was a top priority for the UAE during the recent COP28 held in Dubai. This is underpinned by the ‘COP28 UAE Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems and Climate Action’ being endorsed by 159 countries. These countries have a population of over 6.2 billion people, with 530 million farmers, and account for 77 percent of all the food we eat as well as 83 percent of all emissions from food systems. One of the key goals of the UAE in the coming years is to make agricultural systems more sustainable and climate-smart, and the Ministry will support farmers to enhance agricultural productivity and conserve natural resources.”
The participants reviewed the progress of the recommendations made during the earlier meeting. They discussed the latest updates of the initiative aimed at promoting the sustainability of national farms as well as the volume of local purchases and the increase in the number of farmers who have benefitted from the initiative.
The meeting took decisions regarding the registration of national farms, leveraging marketing opportunities for local agricultural products, and adding new entities to the list of contractors to enhance their contributions to local purchases.
According to the statement, “The meeting discussed the farmer support program for 2023, which aims to coordinate farmer representatives to support productive farmers. The number of beneficiaries of the Production Input Support Program has increased from 694 in 2022 to 1,140 in 2023.”
