Learn from others’ experience in tackling food scarcity: Expert Tuesday, 28 June 2011 01:54

DOHA: Food security is an immense global challenge and countries should implement their own programmes to tackle the looming crisis, according to a Qatari official at the ongoing World Conference of Science Journalists 2011 held at Qatar Foundation.

“We have seen what had in Egypt and the underlying cause of this is primarily food. The state simply subsidised food at a greater degree and controlled prices,” said Fahad bin Mohammed Al Attiya, Chairman, Qatar National Food Security Programme (QNFSP) during a session yesterday.

Responding to a query, Attiyah said he doesn’t see any reason why there would be political obstruction for programmes seeking to attain food security specifically in the region, and in fact it is being encouraged.

“Every country should have their own food security programmes but learn from other countries’ experiences,” he said, adding with increase in population, exporting countries will have to export less to provide food for their own population.

He emphasised that with 90 percent of its food being imported from other countries, there is an urgent need for Qatar to implement a sustainable programme which is the QNFSP.

“QNFSP is a multi-agency programme involving 17 agencies, which seeks to offer lasting solution to make Qatar food secure,” explained Attiyah, adding it touches on 21 sectors such as R&D, energy, education, agriculture, water, and technical industries.

Attiyah said after four years of designing the the QNFSP master plan, it would be implemented by the end of 2013 and achieve its objectives by 2023.

The programme will be using new technology, which at present is expensive but vital for the country to overcome this problem which, according to Attiyah threatens not only Qataris but mostly the expatriates who comprise majority of the country’s population.

“We have a huge number of expatriates, who are driving our economy. We have to take food security seriously because we can possibly lose a great number of them if they decide to return home,” he said.

The programme will be sustainable and consider the environment in its implementation such as putting up a solar powered desalination plant and developing agriculture industry using traditional methods and modern techniques.

“When we produce food, we want to make sure we protect biodiversity. Through the use of solar energy, we will cut CO2 emission.”

The Peninsula