Backyard Urban Agriculture in Qatar: Challenges & Recommendations

Abstract

The last decade witnessed a return to traditional ways of farming that were, for decades, braced by technological advancement. Along with many countries around the world, Qatar manifests an interest in urban farming, encouraged by a strong political will to achieve food security. The plans set and implemented by the Qatari government, on both micro and macro levels, raised awareness around urban farming and inspired many urban households. In this study, a survey of 70 households practising backyard farming was performed to explore their particular challenges. A thorough literature review winds up with national scale challenges, raising issues common to urban farming in hot-arid regions. The research design follows a mixed qualitative method, which includes a literature review and semi-structured interviews. The synthesized data, shaped by an understanding of the national scale challenges and drawn from the interviews and surveys’ conclusions, is categorized into 4 themes: environmental, economic, regulative and social. The results showed that many macro-level challenges cascade down to the household/micro level. Under the environmental category, key findings include climatic challenges, non-viable organic farming problems, soil scarcity, and pollution. Economic challenges include the low return on investment in rent and labour, soil, fertilizers, and water costs. The public policy appeared to lag in areas of urban-farming subsidy, land-use policy, and food safety. Recommendations to abate challenges include national strategies to mitigate water and soil scarcity, land use policy upgrades, public health policies, suitable selections of agricultural systems, and farmers’ support.