Challenges and innovations driving CEA in GCC and MENA

Credit: World Resources Institute

According to Strategy and PWC, GCC countries import about 85% of their food and approximately 56% of vegetables, largely due to the highly limited arable land in the region, averaging 4.25%.

So how can these countries ensure food security, save water, and mitigate climate change while working with limited arable land?

As stated by Ryan M. Lefers, Mark Tester and Kyle J. Lauersen on their article Emerging Technologies to Enable Sustainable Controlled Environment Agriculture in the Extreme Environments of Middle East-North Africa Coastal Regions,  “MENA coastal regions hold incredible untapped potential for agriculture driven by the combination of key emerging technologies in future greenhouse concepts: transparent infrared collecting solar panels and low energy salt water cooling.”  The proliferation of controlled environment operations in the region, particularly those employing innovative production methods and energy generators, holds great promise. This abundance of CEA initiatives is expected to enhance food security and mitigate the impact of climate change.

Agritecture consulted CEA operations in the region and noted the challenges that they face.

According to CEA operators, some challenges faced by the sector are: Credit: Frontiers in Plant Science

1. The hype surrounding the industry inflates the successes and can gloss over the serious issues that need to be addressed.

Continue reading.

Header Photo Credit: Mojan Farms.

Source: