How UAE farmer built farm that has everything, fed family for 14 years
Mohammed Mahfouz, an Emirati farmer and entrepreneur, has done some amazing things towards self-sufficiency, especially during the Covid-19 crisis. The 49-year-old has had a successful farm in Abu Dhabi for the past 14 years, and his family always have fresh fruits, meat, poultry, dairy, vegetables and honey.
Mohammed has made Al Shahad Farm sustainable and food secure through hard work. "If every family owns a farm, the country would become self-sufficient," Mohammed added.
When people were working and studying on the go during the pandemic, Mohammed and his family moved in with their integrated farm. There they subsisted, eating local animals, fish and vegetables. "So we took advantage of that and went to the farm. "We had eggs, yogurt and ghee," he said.
The pandemic also pushed the demand in the local market for agricultural products, which were scarcity and prices due to import restrictions. It was a turn that Mohammed was able to sell the crops of his farm at a good price while scaling up production to supply the local market.
He has been a salesman for an oil company for 25 years, but it is farming that drives him. Farming isn’t just a career for him: it’s an activity. ‘I am an outdoor guy and even if I do go on trips, I still prefer farms and the countryside to the city,’ he said.
He’d been interested in farming, and so bought the farm for about Dh700,000, adding Dh2 million of construction costs. He bought the farm in 2010 and spoke of huge costs to build housing for his family and workers, and to house animals, a net house and a greenhouse.
Sustainable farming practices
Mohammed is a sustainable farmer not just in his agriculture; he also composts. He composts food waste for fertiliser, and exterminates unwanted pests with light traps instead of chemical pesticides.
"We grow vegetables and fruits among other things and we aim at getting the productivity up by having an update every year on the farming system," he continued.
Mohammed’s farm has 19,488sqm and there are two sources of water: state water, and private wells, the latter desalinated to make it saltier. ‘The feed is a mixture of 10 per cent barley and preserved corn so the animals are adequately fed.
Mohammed has recruited six workers with 13 years’ experience in farming and agro-herding and is supported by an Egyptian employee who has been working on the farm his whole life. "The farm wants to be productive at low prices and I have been making money for a few years," he said.
Personal commitment
Mohammed has learned a lot in these years, and it’s made the farm even better. His plantation now has 35 palm trees and more than 400 Sidr trees that make Sidr honey. Bananas, dates, carrots, cabbage, corn, tomatoes, peppers, onions, hibiscus, figs, mangoes, sugarcane and dragon fruit – all of it is sold direct to the public.
But Mohammed, for all the farm’s worth, has never let go of his vision, saying: "I love my farm, and if I were to get Dh3 million to sell it, I wouldn’t even do it. This farm is an investment and it’s worth a lot more each year."
"I am continually retooling the farm, trying to make it less expensive and more productive, and growing the farm to have more opportunities to produce sustainable profits," he continued.
A variety of animals
There are Saudi and Omani sheep, Dutch cows, turkeys, pigeons and chickens roaming the farm. Mohammed has goats, ducks and fish, as well as bees. He feeds his animals using hydroponics, where the nutrients of water rather than soil were pumped into the root of the barley.
"I want to leave zero waste. I give the animals fruits, not good for us, and corn stalks. Alongside the government feed, I also have food coming through hydroponics, using food scraps as fertiliser," he said.
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