Greenhouses key to water and food security in UAE, expert says

A United Nations agency is working with water-scarce UAE, which is heavily dependent on imported food, to develop greenhouses to save water and boost food security, an expert said.

Greenhouses use only 10 per cent of the water needed to produce the same yields from open farming, said Pasquale Steduto, deputy regional representative for the Near East and North Africa at the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO).

They work by recycling water – normally lost in plant transpiration and evaporation in the open – in contained spaces where farming and climate conditions are controlled.

Steduto said the FAO and the Ministry of Environment and Water (MoEW) are “collaborating to use greenhouses as much as possible to save water while producing food.”