A farm that provides natural produce in the UAE, parrot friendly

Ring necked parakeet enjoying sunflower seeds planted espcialy. Image by William RichardsonAbu Dhabi farm’s organic success sets benchmark for sector across country

Abu Dhabi: It was a pleasant sight as green parrots pecked away at the sunflowers on the periphery of the open field full of ripened fruits and vegetable crops.

The parrots flew away on our arrival and we soon discovered that the sunflowers were in fact planted with the parrots and other birds in mind.

The farm’s average daily output is 5 tonnes during the peak season. Image Credit: Ahmed KuttyExplaining the concept, Khalid Bin Butti Al Shamsi, the owner of Abu Dhabi Organic Farm, said, “Being the morning time, there are only few, you will find hundreds of green parrots late afternoon and evening. These sunflowers have been planted only for those parrots so that they get their due share of food and ensure they do not eat the vegetables and fruits in the field,” he said.

“Parrots are very fond of sunflowers, so they spare the vegetables and fruits. We never do anything to scare those parrots and birds as other farmers do, because they are also part of this ecosystem and support farming.”

The farm’s honey output is 3 tonnes annually. Image Credit: Ahmed KuttyServing sunflower to parrots helps maintain a biological control over pests and insects in the farm and avoid the use of pesticides and insecticides.

Parrots and a large number of local birds visiting the farm prey on some of the pests and insects, executing the biological control, Al Shamsi said. Peacocks reared on the farm also play a similar role, taking a particular relish for the scorpions, keeping workers from harm. “A lab at the farm breeds friendly insects and we release them to greenhouses and open fields,” Al Shamsi said.

The Mazaraa label is fast making a name. Image Credit: Ahmed KuttyMost of the greenhouses are equipped with heating or cooling systems, depending on the local weather.

The yellow sheets hung inside the greenhouses serve as biological traps. The fragrance of organic glue pasted on these sheets attracts male insects and kills them, preventing their breeding. Certain herbs planted around the farm also keep the insects away.

The 55-hectare organic farm produces 70 types of vegetables, fruits and herbs, apart from fish, poultry, milk, honey, meat and many other products. It has about 2 hectares of greenhouses.

Certification

An organic fruit ready for harvest at the open field unharassed by parrots. Image Credit: Ahmed KuttyAl Shamsi, who graduated in Business Administration from the United States, started the farm in 2000 in a different location. He followed the organic farming concept since the outset. The farm was later relocated to the current location in the desert, about 15 kilometres away from Abu Dhabi International Airport. A prominent international agency certified it as an organic farm in 2007.

“As we never used chemicals, it was easy to get the certification within a year. Otherwise a farm has to wait for a certain transition period [2 to 3 years] after stopping the use of the chemical fertilizer and pesticides,” Al Shamsi said.

The farm, started off with a few workers, now boasts a staff of 120, including farm workers, cooks, administrative staff and truck drivers. Apart from routine effort to build up an organisation, there were no major challenges because domestically made organic produce always had demand in the market, Al Shamsi said.