In the desert country of Qatar, all agricultural land is owned by the state, and almost all who work in agriculture are foreign migrant workers. Just over one percent of the land area is cultivable; an equally small proportion of the residents devote themselves to agriculture, livestock management or fishing.
CountryAAH: Comprehensive import regulations of Qatar. Covers import prohibitions and special documentation requirements for a list of prohibited items.
Qatar is dependent on imports for its food supply. T ill due to the boycott of Qatar which was launched by the neighboring countries in 2017 threatened a security crisis with empty food shelves. A series of measures were then initiated to ensure the availability of food. One of the most surprising is that many holstein insects have been flown in to secure the production of dairy products. The boycott has also caused Qatar to bunker foods such as rice and cooking oil in large warehouses in the desert. At the end of 2019, the government announced that it would build contingency stocks: six months’ consumption of 22 important goods, in volumes expected to reach three million people. A couple of months later, the corona crisis erupted when a number of countries, in the face of the looming global food shortage, wished they had made similar decisions.
Dairy farms with air conditioning in desert environment houses livestock herds. The feed for the animals is imported from Europe and the United States. In 2019, the farm company was quoted on three-quarters, so that it was also possible for investors to enter production. In 2019, there were 18,000 dairy cows at the company Baladna, which then managed to cover 90 percent of the country’s demand for fresh dairy products. Qatar’s government retains a “golden share” in the company to influence future decisions. For Qatar defense and foreign policy, please check recipesinthebox.
FACTS – AGRICULTURE
Agriculture’s share of GDP
0.2 percent (2018)
Percentage of land used for agriculture
5.8 percent (2016)
Abbreviationfinder.org: Offers how the 3-letter acronym of QAT stands for the state of Qatar in geography.
2015
September
Field troops in Yemen
Around 1,000 Qatari soldiers participate as Saudi ground troops enter Yemen where the Huthirbells are now being pushed back.
May
Elections to advisory bodies are held
Elections to the advisory body dealing primarily with local issues are held, for the fifth time. Five of the candidates are women and two of them are in the Council.
March
Attack on rebels in Yemen
Qatar is one of about a dozen countries joining an alliance led by Saudi Arabia that launches air strikes against the Shiite Muslim Huthirbels in Yemen. The rebels have captured large parts of Yemen and forced the president to flee.
February
State visit to the United States
The Emir visits the United States and meets President Barack Obama in the White House.
Two al-Jazira journalists imprisoned in Egypt (see December 2014) are released on bail pending their case to be tried again. The third of the imprisoned journalists was released in January.
