23 Investment Sectors | Agriculture 46 Noticeable increases included agricultural production, both plant and animal, as well as table eggs, where production increased from 11 tons in 2017, representing 14% of self-sufficiency, to 19 tons, representing 24% of self-sufficiency. These high percentages of Qatari agricultural production confirm that the current situation of basic agricultural commodities and products is very reassuring, with ambitious plans to increase them, to reach 100% in the coming period, within the framework of the agricultural sector strategy of the Ministry of Municipality and Environment. Qatar Farms Program Within the framework of the State’s efforts and directions to work to help the Qatari agricultural product and solve the problems it faces, coordination and cooperation has been established between the Ministries of Municipality and Environment, and Economy and Trade to launch a new program called Qatar Farms to market Qatari vegetables in consumer complexes. The idea is to avail opportunity to Qatar farmers to showcase their first-class products in consumer complexes with high quality and at reasonable prices for the consumer without an intermediary, and without the farmer paying any financial commissions for that, provided that these vegetables are sold in the complexes by the retail weight system, given that the program was launched in a number of consumer complexes in the country. The latest statistics of the agricultural sector at the Ministry of Municipality and Agriculture show the importance of marketed vegetables in the Qatar farms program, as various types of vegetables were marketed to consumer complexes that are participating in the program. Qatari vegetables that were marketed in the consumer complexes that are participating in the Qatar Farms Program represented 64% as an average of all types of vegetables offered in consumer complexes, compared to only 36% for imported vegetables, given that before the program, the percentage of local vegetables in the complexes did not exceed 5%. Among the gains are the rehabilitation of a large number of Qatari farms, which reached 105 that can supply their production of high-quality vegetables to consumer complexes on a daily basis, and many farms have also purchased refrigerated transport vehicles to transfer production to consumer complexes, which is positively reflected in the low percentage of loss and damage of local vegetables to the minimum possible. Sustainable National Agriculture The Agricultural Research Department of the Ministry of Municipality revealed the development of a new farmingmethod, the firstof its kind, that combines several agricultural methods. It is called Sustainable National Agriculture for its contribution to achieving sustainable food security in Qatar, by adopting a method based on local resources. Investment Projects for Food Security Within the framework of efforts to achieve self-sufficiency in agricultural products and commodities, the Ministry adopts several targeted initiatives in this regard, such as introducing strategic projects to achieve food security by providing opportunities for private investors in the agricultural field, including the launch of four large strategic projects for the production of vegetables with an area of one million square meters per project.
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