It is time for Dubai’s green champions to once again grow their own food and win prizes.
Hussain Nasser Lootah, director-general of Dubai Municipality has recently launched the second edition of its ‘Grow Your Food’ campaign that encourages residents to cultivate vegetables and herbs in their backyards and balconies, and help contribute to food security and food safety in the emirate.
Cash prizes await the winners of the best vegetable gardens in homes, offices, schools and special needs centres in Dubai in this year’s campaign that will start with a series of workshops and training programmes before the three-month contest begins in December.
With the successful launch of the campaign last year, a senior official said citizens and expatriates in the Emirate have become more aware of the importance of home farming, and the need for preserving the environment, which paves the way for a new cultural diffusion to other UAE regions.
“We want to change the mindset of [more] people. It’s not difficult … It is easy … Even if you have one room, you can grow something. You just need to know the right method.” Khalid Mohammad Sharif Al Awadhi, assistant director-general of the Environment, Health and Safety Control Sector.
He said the aim of the campaign is to encourage all the members of a family to participate in vegetable gardening in a simple but fun way by making use of techniques and expertise provided by experts from Dubai Municipality and campaign partners.
Shugufta M. Zubair, senior food safety awareness support officer at the municipality who is coordinating the project, said the campaign aims to contribute to food security and nutrition as well as reduce food wastage.
“Since Dubai has mostly imported food items it is very good to have your food growing in front of your eyes. We also want to promote food wastage reduction through this initiative. When people see how much hard work goes into making it, they will actually learn the importance of not wasting food … and of course it is more nutritious with no chemical pesticides.”