Across the Middle East today, the agritech industry is seeing healthy growth as farmers, startups, major companies, and governments work to boost local production to meet future demand for food. Robots are being deployed to harvest crops in greenhouses and autonomous driving technology is allowing for satellite-driven tractors. Data analysis tools and AI advancements are giving rise to a generation of smart farming technologies capable of revolutionizing agriculture as we know it today.
Hot and Dry: A Challenging Landscape
Farming in the Middle East comes with unique challenges, chief among them a lack of rainfall, limited groundwater, and increasingly frequent heat waves caused by climate change. Lack of farmland is another issue. In two-thirds of Middle East and North Africa (MENA) nations, less than 5 percent of the land is considerable arable, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Meanwhile, the population of the Middle East has quadrupled since the 1950s, rising from around 100 million to more than 400 million as of 2020. This population growth is not expected to slow down anytime soon, with experts predicting that, by 2050, the Middle East’s population will have risen to about 600 million.
Many countries across the Middle East depend on imports for much of their food needs. For the example, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations—Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE—import about 85 percent of their food. Disruption to food supply chains caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and compounded by the Russian invasion of Ukraine (a major grain exporter) have heightened the issue. For many Middle East nations, the math is clear: there’s an obvious need to invest in technological solutions to increase domestic food production.
Agritech to the Rescue
Prompted by the food security crisis, a generation of entrepreneurs is scrambling to innovate farming processes and systems and to develop better, less expensive, and more efficient agricultural methods. Middle Eastern governments are also investing billions to strengthen self sufficiency and increase food security. For example, the UAE has announced its National Food Security Strategy 2051, with the goal of pushing the country to the top of the Global Food Security Index in three decades. Part of the strategy involves a $100 million investment in various agritech initiatives.
Agritech can take many forms, but the ultimate goal is to find technological solutions to increase yields with fewer inputs of water, land, and labor than traditional farming methods. A PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) Strategy& article described six types of agritech that could help the Middle Eastern agricultural sector overcome environmental challenges and improve food security:
Controlled environment agriculture – This form of agritech encompasses solutions like vertical farms, greenhouses, and other indoor farming environments where plants are protected from the variability and extremes of the weather outside. Hydroponics (growing plants in a nutrient-rich liquid solution) and aeroponics (growing plants without any soil or liquid solution; plants receive nutrients via an aerosolized mist) are often integral to controlled environment agriculture. Other indoor farming projects rely on aquaponics, which involves creating a controlled ecosystem where fish and plants are cultivated simultaneously, supporting each other.
Precision agriculture – These technologies help farmers apply inputs of water and fertilizer precisely and efficiently to their crops so they can maximize yields. Waste and therefore costs are minimized, and scarce resources—primarily water—are conserved. Such technologies include temperature and moisture sensors, which help farmers avoid over- and underwatering. Drones and aerial cameras can help farmers view their fields and pinpoint problem areas. Meanwhile, data analysis software and AI tools can help farmers manage soil, plus predict the best times to plant, harvest, and rotate crops.
Desert farming solutions – These solutions include methods of increasing the water retention in soil, as well as technologies that help farmers improve the efficiency of traditional irrigation.
Seawater farming – The Middle East may face a relative lack of freshwater, but saltwater is abundant. Seawater farming projects often rely on on-site desalination or evapotranspiration technology to collect freshwater for crops that grown in a controlled environment. Other projects involve growing edible salt-tolerant plants, such as sea beans, in seawater.
Cellular agriculture – In cellular agriculture, agricultural products are synthesized in a laboratory using cell cultures. This type of agriculture relies on innovations in biotechnology, tissue engineering, and other disciplines to produce edible proteins, fats, and tissues. For example, cultured meat can be produced using cultures of animal cells. In addition, cellular agriculture can be used to produce food for livestock and fish farms.
Agricultural robotics – Robotics and automation can be used for a variety of purposes in agriculture, including seeding, planting, weeding, fertilizer application, harvesting, and packing crops.
Doing More with Less
Agritech can be a boon to Middle East nations seeking to boost domestic food production, reduce food insecurity, and adapt agriculture to the increasingly hot, dry, and unpredictable climate that global warming is bringing to the region. In sum, agritech provides a range of solutions for doing more with less—enabling farmers to achieve significantly higher yields while conserving precious resources.