Qatar's journey to self-sufficiency: an interview with Fahad Bin Mohammed Al-Attiya.

• Position: Interview

With no rivers, one of the world's lowest levels of rainfall, and a harsh desert environment, Qatar's agricultural resources are very limited. The country has a land area of 11,590 square kilometers, of which only 1.1 percent is arable. Qatar's population, however, is on the rise: it increased 300 percent from 500,000 people in 1995 to 2 million people in 2014. In an interview with the Journal, Fahad Al-Attiya, chairman of the Qatar National Food Security Programme, discussed the challenges facing dryland regions, and the government's ten-year plan to make the country self-sufficient in agriculture.

Journal of International Affairs: You are the chairman of the Qatar National Food Security Programme. Could you share with us the mission of this program, and the main aspects of the plan that will be implemented from 2014 to 2024?

Al-Attiya: The Programme has developed a master plan to implement a comprehensive reform in the energy, water, agriculture, and food sectors in Qatar. The goal of this reform is to ensure that Qatar reaches a state of food security by 2025. In order to achieve this goal, we established four core objectives: the first is to reform domestic agricultural production; the second is to diversify trade and international investments; the third is to maintain strategic reserves of water and food; and the fourth is to reform market governance. The program was initiated back in 2008 by His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa A1 Thani, then Emir of the State of Qatar, who had the vision to construct a plan based on sustainable principles. In order to reform domestic agriculture, we upgraded the entire farming system. To supply water to the farming sector in Qatar and maintain strategic reserves of water, we expanded the use of desalination and distributed desalinated seawater to farmers to save aquifers. We use solar energy to power the process of desalination. The aquifers will then act as our strategic water reserves. In the process of collecting seawater to distributing it as desalinated water to farms, we use efficient and advanced technologies to minimize the waste of food and water and to increase productivity.

Journal: You mentioned the diversification of international trade and a reform of market governance. Can you elaborate a bit more on those ideas?

Al-Attiya: We live in a globalized world, and trade is one of the backbones of the global economic system. Food has become a globalized commodity over the past couple of...