The Center for Sustainable Development at Qatar University (QU) was recently awarded a project to produce biological fertilizers based on salt-tolerant microorganisms to promote organic crop production in Qatar. The project is in response the Food Security Call from the Qatar National Research Fund and Ministry of Municipality and Environment and aims to increase Qatar’s food security in a sustainable manner.
This bio-fertilizer will not only improve plant productivity and fruit quality but also enhance the soil quality and allow for the use of salt-water for sustainable production of conventional crops such as tomatoes.
The ability of crops to grow using salt-water will permit for a drastic alleviation of the pressure on Qatar’s scarce ground-water resources. Dr. Imen Saadaoui, Research Associate Professor at CSD, Qatar University, and Co-Lead-PI of the project said: “This novel bio-fertilizer will increase the soil-quality, as well as enhance the salt tolerance capacity of the plant, which will allow for the use of irrigation waters with higher salt concentrations. This can play an important role in promoting sustainable food production in Qatar.”
The project will foster international collaboration between local researchers and the Center of Biotechnology of Sfax (Tunisia) where the technology originates. Dr. Slim Tounsi, Director of the Centre of Biotechnology of Sfax and Lead-PI of the project commented: “We are thrilled to be working together with our colleagues at Qatar University to pilot this technology – we believe it can have a significant impact on the sustainability of the food-supply chain in Qatar, and look forward to seeing it in action.”
The project is in collaboration with Agrico, where the novel technology will be demonstrated. Agrico, one of Qatar’s leading crop producers, is excited to be able to be one of the first to apply this new technology, Nasser Al Khalaf at Agrico commented: “Our Company strives to explore innovative agricultural solutions to achieve national food security. This technology has the potential to drastically reduce the ecological footprint of crop production in Qatar, whilst producing sustainable organic and nutritious food for the Qatari society.”