Qatar National Food Security Strategy 2018 – 2023.

This Food Security Strategy is a 5-year nationwide sectoral document aiming at defining pillars and actions to be undertaken by Qatar to achieve food security. The document identifies the fields of intervention as follows (i) international trade and logistics; (ii) domestic self-sufficiency; (iii) strategic reserves; (iv) domestic markets, and Qatar should focus on the following four pillars (1) ensure that trade routes are diversified to limit risk exposure; (2) move food from port, field, or reserves to table as efficiently as possible (i.e., limiting food losses/waste at each stage of the value chain), with regulations that foster competition and encourage safety; (3) put in place adequate reserve capacity to act as a buffer in time of crisis; (4) efficiently cultivate crops, meat, and fish within the confines of a Qatar’s resource base to ensure a stable source of perishables in times of crisis, also providing a regulatory framework that creates incentives to focus on commodities that convenient from a cost-competitiveness point of view.
To enhance self-sufficiency, the suggested actions focus on production and in particular, (i) Increase the productivity of local farms by adopting best-fit farming technologies, providing technical training and extension services, and granting access to high-quality crop inputs; (ii) increase vegetable production by establishing a hydroponics greenhouse cluster to reach 70% self-sufficiency in greenhouse vegetables (e.g., tomatoes, pepper, cucumber, squash, lettuce); (iii) expand and improve production capacity for red meat (fattening units and breeding farms for sheep and goat) and fisheries (fish farms); (iv) production of fresh milk and poultry to 100% self-sufficiency by discontinuing tenders and redirecting capacity to other purposes (shifting poultry surplus to egg production or frozen poultry); (v) Reduce ground water-based fodder production, increase production from wastewater, and evaluate plans for desalination capacity expansion.
Measures to increase the domestic markets envisage (i) farmer support programs to ensure transparency in the price-setting process and assist farmers in improving productivity; (ii) food waste program, including collection, treatment, and alternative usage of organic waste; (iii) optimize and simplify food standards governance to monitor food safety in the country and to supervise quality certification more effectively; (iv) offer an efficient go-to-market channel for local farmers.