Greening the desert: Dubai residents take to balcony farms

When Indian doctor Sangeetha Parashar moved in to her new villa in Dubai’s Al Wasl area with her husband Sanjay, she immediately fell in love with the garden. “Gardening has been a passion for both of us and we immediately went about planting a variety of food plants, from strawberries and eggplant to chillies, tomatoes and okra.” 

Food security and overdependence on food imports have long been dominant topics of discussion and couples like the Parashars are well aware of the problems the nation and the region could face due to these issues. In fact, they could be part of a solution that encompasses local agricultural inititiaves and quality organic produce. 

Twenty years ago, the UAE needed to feed two million people. Today, imports make up 85 per cent of the food consumed by about nine million. According to Alpen Capital’s GCC Food Industry Report  2015, the UAE is the region’s second-largest food producer and consumer, after Saudi Arabia, accounting for 14.8 per cent and 18.5 per cent of total food production and consumption in 2012 respectively.   

Desert greens

By 2050 about 70 per cent of the people is expected to live in cities — compared to 49 per cent today — meaning production of food within city limits, or urban farming, will become widespread. These urban edible landscapes will take the form of large-scale vertical farming production units as well as smaller community efforts in public parks, gardens and rooftops. And the UAE is clued in.

The beginning of the month saw the opening of Dubai’s first volunteer-run urban rooftop garden. The Urban Garden is a Slow Food Dubai initiative that is prettily sited near the rooftop pool of the Time Oak Hotel and Suites in Tecom. Onsite crops include seven varieties of basil and nine types of lettuce as well as garlic, bitter gourd and curry leaf plants, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, cucumber, okra, aubergine, pomegranate and more.

“People living in urban spaces have become disconnected with the natural, wild and free,” says Laura Allais-Maré, who runs the initiative in partnership with Time Hotels. “Grow just one herb or a myriad of plants on your balcony or rooftop and you will experience a deep-rooted satisfaction of picking a handful of your own home-grown basil, coriander or garlic chives. This is a tangible and real synergy with the natural. Gardening restores that connect with nature.” 

Allais-Maré, Founder of the city’s Slow Food Convivium and the UAE’s Balcony and Urban Gardening Group, points to a growing awareness that well-being comes from the food we eat and says people want to know what they’re eating, where it’s from and how it was grown.  

Sustainable City, a new project off Emirates Road, aims to be the first zero net energy ecological development. Part of its appeal are 11 biodomes, or giant greenhouses, for farming agricultural produce right here in the city. A weekly farmer’s market will retail organic produce, while residents can sign up for a box of friut, vegetables and herbs to be delivered to their doorsteps regularly.

“Lately we have seen a huge trend in urban farming,” says Faris Saeed, CEO of Diamond Developers responsible for Sustainable City. The controlled, self-sufficient biodomes closely replicate the natural outdoor environment, making it feasible to grow your own organic food despite the UAE’s challenging climate. “We anticipate the increase in popularity and interest in urban farming in the UAE will make Sustainable City one of the most sought-after areas in which to rent or buy property.” 

These ventures disprove the sceptics who believe nothing can grow in a climate where maximum temperatures peak to 50 degrees Celsius. 

“Many people carry on about the harsh climate here,” says Allais-Maré. “Growing food in Finland, Denmark or Canada is just as challenging due to the cold. We have designed food forests in villa gardens and large pots where we are able to grow produce 12 months of the year. We need to learn from nature and not manipulate nature into doing what we want it to do.” 

Shop local

In fact, she says, the trend for local, organic eating is so far along that the food industry is looking to invest in and operate businesses in this segment. 

“There are a lot of healthy restaurants and cafés, as well as juicing and raw food companies popping up. Even large hotel chains are listening to customers and incorporating healthier, fresh, organic food choices into their menus.” 

Pinch Gourmet is a home-grown catering service that launched last year and sources most of its ingredients locally and supports food sustainability by avoiding non-sustainable products such as hammour that has been overfished. 

“Consumers and restauranteurs are getting tired of corporations playing around with our food, pumping them with steroids and over-spraying herbs with pesticides,” says chef Elias Kandalaft of Pinch Gourmet. 

“Food is rarely sold in its natural state. It should be the consumer’s right to know where their food is coming from and how it is processed. Eating right is a new lifestyle change that is here to stay, and thanks to urban farming it is becoming easy to maintain by ensuring food is grown naturally and is fresh and seasonal.”

Then there is Greenheart Organic Farms that stocks more than 400 handpicked products in its shop in Arjan, Dubailand. Customers can choose from more than 100 freshly harvested seasonal vegetables and a small selection of fruit grown at Greenheart’s own farm in Sharjah. 

“There’s noticeable realisation that produce grown in rich soil without harmful chemicals is more beneficial than conventional produce,” says Elena Kinane, Founder of Greenheart Organic Farms. “People simply want real food that is good for them and smells and tastes great.” 

Increasing market share

Sales of organic packaged food in the UAE reached $16.3 million (Dh59.8 million) in 2013, according to Euromonitor International. Retail sales are forecast to grow by 31 per cent to top $21.1 million in 2018. 

Others involved in this new green revolution are enterprising and passionate urban farmers such as Shaikha Al Muhairy, the 24-year-old Emirati who founded Organic Oasis almost two years ago near her home in Al Khawaneej in Dubai. The farm is now a thriving business that produces 52 types of fruit, vegetables and herbs on its 85,000-square-foot site. It has also obtained three types of local and international organic certification: UAE Organic; USDA Organic; and EU Organic from BCS Öko-Garantie, which is Europe’s oldest organic-certifying body. 

When not working security for Abu Dhabi’s ruling family, Mohammad Salama can be found on Yas Farms, the UAE’s first organic meat farm that opened a little over a year ago. From organic chickens, turkeys, ducks, pigeons and rabbits to eggs and goat and camel milk, the farm also produces its own water that nurtures the land producing the food that sustain animal life on the farm. The farm has banned pesticides and genetically modified organisms as well as the use of hormones and antibiotics on its farm animals. 

For something closer home, join the shoppers at Ripe Food & Craft markets, which run across a number of locations in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, including Zaabeel Park. Almost a household name today, the Dubai-based organisation sources and sells organic produce from ten local farms in the UAE through its delivery service and at food markets. 

Ripe has seen sales rocket from a handful to hundreds of deliveries a week since its launch in 2011 and founder Becky Balderstone believes that with increasing initiatives aimed at greening the desert, it’s only a matter of time before local food production starts to bear fruit for the region’s food security.