Recently, the UAE minister of climate change and environment stressed that UAE priorities the use of agricultural technologies that increase crop production and quality, and simultaneously reduce the environmental footprint of farms across the country.

The UAE government has initiated a plan to implement artificial intelligence-based real-time advisory based on satellite imagery to increase farm yields where the farm production levels are low. With the help of AI, farmers can analyze a range of aspects such as weather conditions, temperature, rainfall levels, soil conditions, etc to make more informed decisions. They have also implemented the concept of precision agriculture which has the basic concept of using less to grow more. It aims to implement new technologies to maximize crop yield while minimizing the level of traditional inputs required to grow crops. These include resources such as but not limited to land, water, fertilizer, etc. 

 The biggest use of precision agriculture comes into detecting and recognizing diseases in plants, food, and crops. Pests can be detected using AI sensors and then the machine decides which pesticides can be applied to solve the problem. This helps to prevent an overdose of pesticides on the crops which could lead to poor plant nutrition.  

 Some projects that are notable in the UAE are the Themar Al Emarat hydroponic farm and Alyas Farms.

 The Themar Al Emarat farm is the largest mushroom farm in the UAE that manages to produce nearly 6 tons of mushrooms every day.  The entire farm of 190, 000 sq m relies of solar power for its power requirements and recycles 100% of its irrigation water. Another fact worth noting would be that it also reuses the soil in the hydroponic system as agricultural conditioner in traditional cultivation.

 Alyas farms produces nearly 2 tons of green fodder that is used to feed their poulry livestock. Similar to the Themar Al Emarat farm, it also leverages hydroponics in cultivating vegetables.

 Both the farms recently began using orthomosaic maps that are installed to help farmers gain a wider understanding by obtaining images of their fields. The information provided by these maps helps with regard to the performance of crop yield and growth across a large field of crops.

photo credit- gulfagriculture.com