Organic farming is critical to UAE's food security, says Dake Rechsand, encourages entrepreneurs to invest

Dubai, October 19, 2020: In 2019, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) noted that 52 million people in the MENA region were chronically undernourished. The COVID-19 pandemic, along with climate change and economic slowdown, could bring twice as many under the purview of 'acute food insecurity', this year. Water scarcity, arid climate and limited arable land undermine conventional agriculture in the region, with even economically able nations, such as the UAE, importing 80 to 90% of its food.

"Food security in the MENA region requires holistic solutions that address multiple challenges concurrently, rather than a piecemeal approach", says Chandra Dake, CEO and Founder of Dake Reschand, a Dubai-based company offering sustainable solutions in water conservation and desert farming. "Dake Rechsand believes that our breakthrough technology, which transforms ordinary desert sand into air-permeable, water-retentive planting medium, could enable desert farming at scale in water-stressed areas — both economically and organically”.

The reasoning behind the Dake Rechsand claim, that deserts are ideal ecosystems in which to implement organic farming solutions, are: