UAE: Meet the Emirati who transformed a barren land into a food oasis

Ahmed Salim Al Shamsi’s farm is a lift to meals safety amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Two European holidays, that’s what it price me to set it up,” stated Ahmed Salim Al Shamsi.

“However take a look at the rewards,” he beamed, as he let his gaze sweep over the sprawling farm.

A pioneer

The younger Emirati gentleman has each motive to be proud. He has remodeled the household’s modest pick-your-own farm in Sharjah right into a improbable meals oasis in lower than two years.

Al Shamsi, who lives and works in Abu Dhabi, visited the farm through the onset of Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020 to calm down for just a few days.

As a substitute, he ended up working there, typically for 3 months at a stretch after taking a break from his authorities job.

The efforts didn’t go in useless.

Now, rows upon rows of crops stand on the hitherto barren stretch in the midst of a desert between Sharjah and Al Ain.

There are cauliflowers on one patch, eggplants on one other. A 3rd patch is awash with corn.

What’s aquaponics?

Additional up, is a big aquaponics system – an progressive meals manufacturing methodology, the place fish and greens are farmed collectively utilizing recirculated water.

“Innovation makes for unusual bedfellows,” stated the father-of-four. The farm has monumental tanks stuffed with hundreds of Tilapia fish, graded by measurement.

The vitamins from the fish waste are utilized by greenhouse greens equivalent to a big number of lettuce, kale and tomatoes, whereas additionally cleaning the water in order that it might be recycled again to the tanks.

A runaway success

Al Shamsi’s Tilapia fish and natural greens are in nice demand. A number of main grocery store chains have signed up with him, and discussions with many extra are in progress.

“Our tomatoes are of the best high quality,” he stated, plucking a deep ripe one straight from the vine.

“We even have all types of lettuce right here equivalent to oakleaf, lollo rosso, butterhead, salonova. And our Tilapia fish has actual flavour as their water is free from chemical substances,” he added.

Al Shamsi stated he constructed the aquaponics system on-site utilizing cheap domestically accessible lightweight materials, retaining in thoughts the area’s harsh climate circumstances.

“I needed to issue issues just like the scouring winds and the blast furnace desert warmth. The identical aquaponics system would have most likely price me 4 occasions as a lot if I had imported the tools from overseas, and for all you understand, it wouldn’t have labored this effectively,” he stated.

Al Shamsi stated his self-sustaining farm is designed to make use of much less vitality and labour, on the similar time yielding more healthy and extra plentiful harvests than conventional strategies of elevating fish or rising greens.

A mannequin natural farm

“Nothing goes to waste right here. The fish waste supplies important vitamins for lettuce and tomato crops which, in flip, filter the water for the fish. When the fish tank is cleaned, the sludge from fish feed is used to irrigate crops within the open fields,” he added.

Al Shamsi stated it took a great deal of trial and error earlier than he might strike the comfortable stability.

“In fact, I made many errors however I additionally learnt from them. The challenges solely steeled my resolve a lot in order that I stayed on the farm constantly for 3 months till I had managed to get every thing proper. My household would go to me on the farm from Abu Dhabi throughout weekends these days,” he stated.

Diversification on the playing cards

Of late, Al Shamsi has additionally made a foray into apiculture or beekeeping, Plans are additionally afoot to reap mushrooms.

Although a member of the Federal Nationwide Council lately voiced issues over Emiratis abandoning the manufacturing of seasonal crops which are key to meals safety, Al Shamsi is an exception.

He has bucked the discernible pattern with minimal prices.

“I need to make the perfect use of the land given by the federal government,” stated Al Shamsi whereas stepping into his utility activity automobile.

“And what might be higher than offering the native market with clear proteins and greens,” he signed off.

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