Plans are underway to have farms in Bahrain run on renewable energy as the kingdom fast-tracks efforts to roll out innovative projects and initiatives as part of its strategy to boost food security.Municipalities Affairs and Agriculture Minister Wael Al Mubarak told MPs during the weekly session yesterday that varying uses of green energy – for agriculture or animal wealth – were being studied and projects would soon be ready for implementation.The minister said six locations have been earmarked for hydroponic farming and yield from the 41 hectares of land would cover 10 per cent to 20pc of the country’s vegetable needs.“Tenders for two locations in Howrat A’ali and Duraz have been issued while the four other locations are in the process of being registered for soil-less farming projects,” the Minister said. Hydroponics is a method of growing plants without soil, by using mineral nutrient solutions in a water solvent. The alternative farming technique is considered particularly suitable to arid countries like Bahrain where the amount of arable land is very limited.Mr Al Mubarak also pointed out that an 830,000 square metre plot has been allocated to increase poultry production, in partnership with the private sector, while another 340,000sqm has been set aside for chicken coops.“The General Poultry Company, the biggest producer of table eggs in the country, has also seen an expansion that increased its production to 108.1 million eggs last year – up by 16.2m eggs from 2022,” said Mr Al Mubarak.Mr Al Mubarak said productive seeds would be imported for local farming following international agreements.“We are trying to launch the Agricultural Genetics Resources Bank as we work to get new productive seeds from international suppliers to expand or strengthen farming,” he added. “The ministry has 47.94 hectares of agricultural plots registered under its books and we are looking for further growth.”He added that Bahrain last year imported 13,594.5 tonnes of frozen red meat, 11,931.9 tonnes of chilled poultry meat, 46,764 tonnes of frozen poultry meat, and 161,335 livestock heads.Meat and livestock are exempted from value-added tax,” he said. (ICE Doha)

Fonte notizia: Gulf Daily News