Today's Edition
SARA ALZAABI (ABU DHABI)
Global Food Week in Abu Dhabi showcased innovations in lab-grown meat, nutrient recovery and date palm cultivation to strengthen food security through technology and international cooperation.
Speaking to Aletihad on the sidelines of the event, international experts and participants highlighted how climate change, water scarcity and growing food demand are accelerating the search for more resilient food systems.
Dr Abdelouahhab Alboukhari Zaid, Prof., Khalifa International Award for Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation’s Secretary-General, affiliated with Erth Zayed Philanthropies Foundation, UAE Presidential Court, highlighted how advanced technologies are transforming date palm cultivation and helping address challenges related to large-scale production and variety identification.
“As you know now, the propagation of the date palm is not traditional anymore,” he said, explaining that conventional cultivation through offshoots remains in use, but producing large quantities requires more advanced methods.
Highlighting tissue culture as a promising solution, he explained how laboratories can reproduce date palm varieties before transferring them to nurseries for cultivation.
“It is the cloning of the date palm varieties in the labs. Then they go to nurseries and then they are planted. So, this is the future,” he said.
Prof. Zaid also highlighted advances in DNA fingerprinting to distinguish between date palm varieties, alongside plans to develop an electronic database documenting 120 important UAE varieties in collaboration with agricultural partners.
Meanwhile, Badr Al Shehhi, Communication Director at ADAFSA, highlighted the importance of international cooperation in strengthening food security.
“Today, we are exploring the key challenges and opportunities and how we can work together to strengthen our food systems,” he said.
Highlighting the UAE’s long-term ambitions, he added: “Global Food Week highlights the importance of dialogue in strengthening food security and achieving our National Food Security Strategy 2051.”
Brian Cho from Setech Korea, identified climate change as one of the most pressing threats to global food security, calling for technological solutions that can be adopted internationally. “One of the biggest problems in food security issues is climate change,” he said, adding that technology-based solutions could offer hope for the future.
Milan Muso, R&D Scientist at BeneMeat, warned that climate change and rising demand for meat are placing increasing pressure on agricultural land and food production.
“The biggest concern about food security is primarily climate change that is making weather and agriculture more unpredictable and therefore we need more stable solutions,” he said.
He highlighted cultivated meat and fermentation technologies as alternatives that could reduce land requirements and dependence on weather conditions while helping meet growing demand.
Jessie Lafourcade - Morena, Lead Communications and Advocacy, Africa Food Systems Forum, stressed the importance of partnerships between Africa and the UAE to address food insecurity and malnutrition.
“The objective of building this type of partnership here with UAE is to be able to reach the potential that Africa has in terms of you know food production, in terms of land, in terms of youth, in terms of you know natural resources with also what UAE has in terms of technology, in terms of innovation and in terms of knowledge sharing,” she said.
She also highlighted Africa's growing youth participation in agri-business as a source of optimism, emphasising that innovation, investment and knowledge exchange could help strengthen food security across the continent and beyond.
