A Comprehensive Report on Food and Water Security in the UAE

This report provides an in-depth analysis of food and water security in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It explores the importance of these resources, examining the UAE's reliance on imports, which constitute a significant portion of its food supply. The report highlights the challenges the UAE faces, including limited arable land, climate change, and water scarcity, affecting both short-term and long-term food security. It then details the UAE's strategies to secure its water and food supplies, such as investing in technology, supporting local production of non-staple vegetables, and implementing water management initiatives. The role of technology and innovation in transportation is also discussed. The report compares the UAE to its peers, such as Singapore and Norway, in terms of food security, and concludes by emphasizing the need for sustainable practices and innovative solutions to ensure long-term food and water security in the UAE.

Running head: FOOD AND WATER SECURITY
FOOD AND WATER SECURITY
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................2
The research question:.....................................................................................................................2
Methodology:...................................................................................................................................2
Discussion:.......................................................................................................................................3
Importance of water and food security in the UAE:....................................................................3
Import of the UAE Supply and associated issue:........................................................................3
Challenges the UAE faces relating to water and food security:..................................................4
UAE approach to secure its water and food supplies:.................................................................4
The technology and innovation in transport for water and food security:...................................5
The UAE comparison to its peers:...............................................................................................6
Conclusion:..................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction:
Food and water security is a major concern in a range of countries due to economic and
politic crisis which resulted in the inability to produce enough food for feeding the population.
Due to limited water and food supply in arable land, food and water security have become a
national policy priority for the UAE (Rashid, 2020). While UAE is importing the majority of
their food supplies, it is considered as a food secure country due to the capacity to purchase food
on the international market. In 2016, the UAE, through its Al-Dahra Holding Company, built 20
storage tower in an area covering approximately 45,000 square meters alongside the port of
Fujairah for importing the food. However, in the recent era, food security remains a concern for
UAE, especially in the long term, because of supply challenges for importation and production.
The underlying reason can be the global rising of the food price in UAE that may result in
scarcity of water and food supply in future. This paper aims to provide an in-depth analysis of
the importance of water and food security UAE in the following paragraphs.
The research question:
Water and food security important to the UAE?
Methodology:
In order to prepare the report, secondary research was conducted using journals, books
and government documents. For collecting the data, the electronic databases were used such as
CINAHL, PubMed and Google scholar where keywords were given to obtain the journals. The
secondary resources focused on the food and water security in the UAE were only collected

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based on the publication date from 2010 onwards in order to ensure that current information was
used. After collecting the articles, the relevant articles were selected to incorporate in the report.
Discussion:
Importance of water and food security in the UAE:
In the recent decade, the UAE has made extensive investments towards food security and
its benefits from a number of key strengths that have made the food availability secure.
However, considering the recent statistics, it can be said that the UAE has experienced a range of
challenges that threatened the future of food security where food consumptions and climate
change are the most prominent underlying reason. The recent statistics on the food consumption
suggested that in the UAE, food consumption is growing at an annual rate of over 4% per year.
On the other hand, the population is estimated to increase by 9 million to 11 million by 2030
which will result in the scarcity of the food supply (Www.agroberichtenbuitenland.nl., 2020). On
the other hand, water scarcity is also considered as a big challenge in the UAE due to scarcity of
groundwater, high cost of producing water. Hence, water and food safety is considered as one of
the important policy priority in the UAE.
Import of the UAE Supply and associated issue:
Due to the limited supply of water and imported food, food security and water security
has become a public health issue in the UAE. The UAE import approximately 80 to 90% of the
food supply and is considered as 4th countries in terms of food affordability (Ajaj, Shahin &
Salem, 2019). However, it is an issue due to the fact that 80% of its import bans in regional
imports because of the high level of pesticide residues. Moreover, UAE food imports are
expected to rise from $100 billion (Fiaz, Noor & Aldosri, 2018). The issues associated importing
include transportation and increased taxation that in turn affect the food supply. Moreover, even

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after importing 80% of the food, the wastage of food is extremely high that resulted in the
increased price of food and associated food scarcity (Taha et al., 2020). The recent statistics
suggested that the value of food imports will increase from US$3 billion in 2011 to US$8.4
billion by 2020 and the majority of the import depends on the fluctuating revenue of fossil fuel.
Hence, the importation is considered as an important issue in the UAE (Hameed et al., 2019).
Challenges the UAE faces relating to water and food security:
UAE experiences the most glaring challenge in terms of food security compared to other
food-secure countries. UAE has a limited amount of arable land and experiences extreme climate
change in the summertime which poses huge threat to the domestic production of food security
and also food storage. While the import of food may secure food supply in the short term, it
affects the food supply in the long term. Due to the fluctuation of the price between oil and fuels,
UAE becomes extremely vulnerable to food scarcity as the majority of the expenses of import
depends on fossil fuel revenue. Moreover, only 10 key crops are produced in the country that
failed to meet the demand of the population (Rashid, 2020). On the other hand, water supply is
also extremely limited due to low rainfall, the salinity of the water. Consequently, this affects the
domestic production of crops since the country almost incapable of growing wheat and rice that
require a huge amount of water (Alfarra, 2019). While the short term and medium-term security
can be secured through reuse and treatment of wastewater, limited reuse of water, high cost of
producing drinking water and limited treatment opportunities of wastewater will lead to long
term scarcity.
UAE approach to secure its water and food supplies:
In order to meet the high demand for food and water availability, the UAE is using a
range of approaches to provide water supply, food supply and reduction of food waste. The UAE

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is working to boost the resilience of its food supply such as establishing effective trade relations
and investing in technology and research. The UAE focuses on supporting the production of a
range of non-staple vegetable that can support the need of the population. The developing small
agricultural sector and small dairy as well meat industry are common instances of the approach
towards food supply (Hassen & El Bilali, 2019). Alders et al. (2018), suggested that UAE
grows mushroom in a closed environmental system where two largest producers of mushrooms
such as Mirac and Eco fresh that produce 5,000 kg a day. Moreover, date palm production is one
of the important prioritizes of food securities within the framework of the UAE national Future
Food Security Strategy (Www.agroberichtenbuitenland.nl., 2020). The government has invested
in increase self-efficacy by supporting the technologies used for water management and
extraction of groundwater. The Agricultural Innovation Centre is one such center that supports
the national innovation strategy such as greenhouses that are cooled by absorbing water from
plants. For water security, UAE is investing in the economical, lucrative and resilient crop such
as quinoa which requires little water (Al Qaydi, 2016). Moreover, in order to reduce water
scarcity and improve water security, pure harvest farm was developed in the middle of the desert
in the United Arab Emirates that not support food security but also support water conservation.
Moreover, The UAE proposed the Water Security Strategy 2036 that purposes to ensure
sustainable access to water during normal and emergency conditions (Government.ae., 2020).
The strategy is aiming to implement integrated water resources management by dropping total
demand for water resources by 21 %. It will further secure the water supply in the UAE
(Government.ae., 2020).

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The technology and innovation in transport for water and food security:
Due to food and water scarcity in the UAE, technology and innovation play a crucial in
food security and water security. The UAE is already poised to take advantage of the momentum
because of disruptive technologies. In order to establish a framework of integrated and inclusive
strategy, UAE ministry uses a range of technologies and innovation in the transportation of food.
The logistics and transportation hub one of the examples of innovation (Bichai, F., Grindle, A.
K., & Murthy, 2018). Moreover, the UAE uses a range of technologies such as big data, robotics,
agro technology and Smart city infrastructure to facilitate the transportation of the food supply
since these technologies are used for collecting the data for food technology. E. Import Policies
is one such policy implemented through the development of UAE as a transportation and trade
hub and support the innovation associated with transportation in the UAE.
The UAE comparison to its peers:
According to the Food Security Index (FSI), the UAE is ranked number 3328 out of other
countries such as the United States, Ireland, Singapore, Norway and Australia. Singapore is
considered as potential peer of UAE since, like Singapore, UAE have limited lands and relied on
the imports (Rashid, 2020). In order to secure water and food supplies, like Singapore food stock
piling, food price subsidies, food waste strategies, Investing in agriculture abroad and PPP for
technological development are present in the UAE (Bichai, F., Grindle, A. K., & Murthy, 2018).
According to FSI, in the world in terms of food availability, Norway positions 4th, Singapore
ranks 16th and the UAE 51st (Rashid, 2020). moreover, compared to UAE, Norway is high- cost
agriculture producers and Singapore has focused on improving its limited agriculture sector.
Unlike UAE, Singapore scored low in terms of average food supply at 65.7% whereas UAE can
meet the minimum demand of the population. In terms of R and D, FSI sored zero to UAE and

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Norway whereas Singapore received 13th. This information further suggested that while few
parameters are different, in terms of food and water security, the potential competitors of the
UAE are Singapore and Norway.
Conclusion:
On a concluding note, it can be said that food and water security is a major concern in a
range of countries due to economic and politic crisis which resulted in an inability to produce
enough food for feeding the population. While the UAE provides food and water supply based
on the importation, it experiences the most glaring challenge in terms of food security due to a
limited amount of arable land and experiences extreme climate change. The importation becomes
a serious issue due to increased taxation and issues with transportation which resulted in limited
food and water availability. UAE become extremely vulnerable to food scarcity as the majority
of the expenses of import depends on fossil fuel revenue. Moreover, UAE has limited crop
production due to salinity of water, high water treatment cost and limited reusable water. In order
to secure water and food supply, UAE focuses on supporting the production of a range of non-
staple vegetable, a range of technology for facilitating the transportation and investing on the
partnership with other countries and development of agricultural centers. Few instances of
technical innovation include mushroom and date palm production within the closed environment.
Moreover, Water Security Strategy 2036 is one such initiative taken by UAE to focus on water
security. Considering the water and food security, the potential competitor of UAE include
Singapore and Norway.

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