Research Profiles

Need of the Research: The role of agriculture has been marked significantly in sustaining societies throughout the globe and its relevance to hot arid regions is more particular. Qatar’s efforts in safeguarding food security have been witnessed greatly in recent years due to the country’s increased food demands, caused by its rapid population growth and economic development. A detailed study is proposed to explore the options for climate-smart farming in Qatar to meet its food security and sustainability targets as a part of the National Food Security Program and Qatar’s National Vision 2030. Scientific Objectives: This project will strive to develop innovative smart agricultural practices to improve and explore the possibility of expanding the acreage and productivity of date palms and vegetables (tomatoes and eggplant) in Qatar to achieve the self-sufficiency goals of food security and sustainability. The proposed project illustrates a multidisciplinary approach with five scientific objectives to promote sustainable date palm and vegetable production in Qatar: I) Precision soil conservation for improving soil health by introducing bio-solids and organic amendments, II) Developing and applying artificial intelligence-based machine vision technologies to identify plant pests (diseases) in real-time for targeted applications of agrochemicals, III) Introduce sustainable sensor-based smart irrigation systems to optimize quantity and timing of water allocation for crop production, IV) Drones-assisted monitoring and mapping of plants and soil health for early warning and field terrain to attain sustainable resource allocation, and V) Promoting circular bio-economy and performing life cycle analysis of wastes to improve current agriculture management practices. This research project will concentrate on developing novel, innovative, and cost-effective technologies, which are capable of accounting for spatial and temporal variability in soil and crop characteristics to improve yield and quality in the open field and greenhouse-grown crops. The economically viable and environmentally efficient technologies developed through this research project have great potential to achieve self-sufficiency by accurately allocating resources for the sustainable agriculture industry in Qatar. The proposal objectives are closely aligned with the National Food Security Program and Qatar’s National Vision 2030 to promote local agriculture production technologies, conserve, and optimize resources and reduce the state’s reliance on food imports through self-sufficiency and food security. Development and application of smart technologies (i.e. machine vision, artificial intelligence, deep learning, precision soil conservation, sensor-based sustainable irrigation, bio-circular economy) for vegetable and date palms to promote sustainable food production adds novelty and innovation to the project. Project Team Plan: The multidisciplinary project team is composed of researchers from CNA-Q, collaborating institutions, and industry stakeholders to tackle different aspects of the proposed project. The project team has the skills and expertise to take on the proposed scientific objectives. The previous experience of the researchers on the project team will be very valuable to achieve the proposed scientific objectives. With the significant increase in food production activity in Qatar, combined with the expertise of the research team in the proposed project areas, collaboration with the Qatar Government, local industries, and availability/access of equipment through College of North Atlantic-Qatar and this proposal, greatly enhances the feasibility of this research. Effective planning, communications, and training of highly qualified personnel will help to achieve deliverables/outcomes. Moreover, the Government’s mandate to promote innovation and technology in agriculture with the vision of self-sufficiency and food security adds great value to this proposal. Expected Outcomes: This research will help farmers/stakeholders in Qatar to optimize crop productivity, improve soil health, lower environmental risks, and reduce production costs by applying agricultural inputs on an as-needed basis. Introducing the circular bio-economy concept for converting the waste into value-added products that can potentially be used as soil amendments, has a good potential to improve soil health and productivity. Development of innovative systems based on scientific investigations, engineering skills, and lab/field evaluations will train early career researchers and students with expertise in climate-smart agriculture production technologies and secure employment in industry, government, and academia. Research and development in emerging areas of climate-smart agriculture practices will make Qatar a world leader in technology development and its use to ensure food security. Expected Impact of the Project: The proposed project will have a social, economic, and environmental impact while exploring the pathway for sustainable agriculture. The long-term project impact is described below. i. The project outcomes will fill the knowledge gap by conducting extensive fundamental/applied research. ii. Create awareness and promote sustainable agriculture practices to achieve the goals of food security and self-sufficiency. iii. Lower input cost by applying crop inputs (i.e., fertilizer, irrigation, and pesticides) on an an-as-needed basis – resource optimization and improve environmental efficiency. iv. Capacity building by training the Qatari students and research staff in an emerging area of sustainable agriculture technologies to improve self-reliance, sustainability, and food security v. Develop new systems and practices to tackle the agriculture production issues of Qatar through state-of-the-art climate-smart agriculture practices. vi. Create social awareness to produce and consume local food through c

 This study discusses and compares the current environmental impacts related to PP-cups and PE-coated cardboard cups in order to outline a well-founded policy with regard to the usage of these coffee/tea cups.  It includes a life cycle assessment (LCA) analyses for the environmental impacts of such products, the sensitivity analyses on the production, the impact assessment, and interpretation. It also includes the inventory analyses of the two systems which discusses the inventory phase of the two product systems that are being studied.

In recent decades, enacted strict laws to environmental protection have led to green methods being considered by researchers and industries such as using the extracts of plants and agricultural wastes as for synthesising nanoparticles. Industries daily bring large amounts of wastewater into the environment, often containing toxic dyes. photocatalytic degradation has recently attracted the attention of researchers. Since Qatar has sunny days, the photocatalytic destruction is an economical yet efficient technique. In this project, various metal oxide nanoparticles will be produced using the extracts of plants waste available in Qatar. The performance of nanoparticles will be then evaluated in photocatalytic degradation of various organic dyes.

In recent decades, enacted strict laws and the public's attention to environmental protection have led to green methods being considered by researchers as well as industrial sectors. In these methods, efforts are made to minimize the consumption of chemicals during the process. One of these green methods is the use of extracts of various plants or agricultural wastes as a medium for the synthesis of nanoparticles. The extracts of most plants contain large amounts of antioxidants that can play the role of reducing and stabilizing agent and therefore convert a wide range of metal salts to the corresponding metal or metal oxide. Due to the fact that various plants are found in abundance in nature, it is possible to produce different nanoparticles using their extracts through a simple and inexpensive approach. Various industries, such as cosmetics, plastics, leather, food, and textiles, daily bring large amounts of wastewater into the environment, often containing toxic substances and pollutants that are harmful to the environment. One of these pollutants is the various dyes used in these industries. Due to the high solubility of dyes in water, dyes are known to be a potential environmental pollutant. In recent years, among various methods applied for the removal of dyes from effluents, photocatalytic degradation has attracted the attention of researchers because of its excellent ability to degrade organic contaminations. On the other hand, one of the abundant as well as free sources of light is sunlight. Since Qatar has many sunny days, the photocatalytic destruction under solar radiation is an economical yet efficient technique to remove many toxic pollutants, especially from industrial effluents. In this project, various metal oxide nanoparticles with photocatalytic property, including SnO2, ZrO2, CeO2, and ZnO will be produced using the extracts of plants waste available in Qatar as a natural material having reducing and stabilizing properties. The performance of synthesized nanoparticles will be then evaluated in photocatalytic degradation of various organic dyes dissolved in water under solar irradiation. Moreover, the effect of different parameters such as reaction time, amount of catalyst and initial pH of the solution on the degradation efficiency will be investigated by applying experimental design approach. Finally, the optimal degradation conditions will be determined at the last stage of the project.

Qatar’s agriculture and livestock sector witnessed huge growth from 2017 to 2019. Qatar’s Strategic Food Security Projects 2019-2023 aim at increasing the local livestock and food production from the existing %18 of total demand of the country to about %30 percent by 2023. The livestock farming produce not only meat but also a huge amount of bulky organic and nutrient wastes that require a good management and usage planning. This project is aimed at designing, sizing, constructing, and optimizing a semi-automatic and low-cost composting system that is capable to treat various types of bulky organic wastes existing in Qatar and convert them into economically-valuable products.

Qatar’s agriculture and livestock sector witnessed huge growth from 2017 to 2019. Qatar’s Strategic Food Security Projects 2019-2023 aim at increasing the local livestock and food production from the existing %18 of total demand of the country to about %30 percent by 2023. The current agriculture and livestock market contribute 0.2% to the GDP of Qatar (MDPS, 2013-2018) and there are several new projects going on. The livestock farming produce not only meat but also a huge amount of bulky organic and nutrient wastes that require a good management and usage planning. On the other hand, food waste is a huge concern for Qatar, with studies showing that over half of the municipal garbage is composed of food waste and only a minimal portion of this discarded food is being recycled. Moreover, Qatar’s food consumption has been forecast to grow to 1.9mn tonnes in 2023 due to several reasons such as rising population, the increase in tourist arrivals, and social and sport activities. The combination of the country’s very high consumption rate and very low recycling rate, mean that mountains upon mountains of food are being dumped. Therefore, developing and applying new technologies to manage and convert food wastes to some value-added products is of great importance to the sustainable development of state of Qatar. Composting is a viable mean for treating the majority of organic wastes. It is a biological process in which the mesophilic and thermophilic micro-organisms convert a biodegradable organic waste into a value-added product such as a fertilizer. This project is aimed at designing, sizing, constructing, and optimizing a semi-automatic and low-cost composting system that is capable to treat various types of bulky organic wastes existing in Qatar and convert them into economically-valuable products that are more concentrated and have a high amount of nutrients like N, K, and P.

Global demand for clean fresh water is rising due to the increasing world population, industrial activities, and climate change. The decline of natural freshwater resources in recent years has also been recognized as one of the main environmental challenges on a global level. Desalination methods have become more important and currently are critical for producing fresh water from salty water to meet the increasing water demands, especially in water-stressed countries. Qatar as one of the GCC’s fastest-growing economies possesses a population of 2.8 million with an annual growth rate of 2%, which consumes about 460 liters of water per capita per day. This consumption rate continues to remain high despite the state warnings and several initiatives, especially, given insignificant non-renewable water resources, precipitation below 75 mm a year, and high temperatures evaporating the little rainfall the country gets. This project is aimed to investigate the bio-desalination of saline water using microalgae and CO2 absorption as a sustainable and energy-efficient approach to desalinate brackish and seawater sources for agricultural and municipal water use, whilst simultaneously producing useful products. The emphasis of this research will be on using valuable local resources and collecting local microalgae strains with high tolerance to increased water salinity and CO2 levels and developing growth media with optimized operating conditions in order to increase the microalgae productivity and desalination performance. The outcomes of this research project can play a significant role in supporting the local economy by offsetting greenhouse gas emissions and producing usable water and bioproducts, which are vital in achieving a more sustainable future for Qatar.