The UAE is rich in agricultural pioneers but has limited arable land and endures dry, scorching summers. An Emirati farmer who sees the desert climate as an opportunity has turned his love for prickly plants into the country’s largest cactus farm.
Nestled in Ras Al Khaimah’s Asimah Valley, the sprawling farm has more than 5,000 cacti and other succulents.
Obaid Al Mazroui, 54, a retired government official, grew up in the mountainous emirate amid farms, where he learnt about agriculture from his grandfather and father.
He started collecting drought-resistant plants in 1998 as a hobby. Over the years, it developed into a passion that gave way to a thriving garden at the base of the Hajar Mountains.
In March, most of the plants begin to flower, draping the farm in violet, pink, blue, orange and yellow hues.
“Some grow date palms, some grow fruits, some grow vegetables. I grow cactus,” Mr Al Mazroui says at his farm, where he spends a couple of hours every day.
The cacti and other succulent plants belong to the saguaro, stenocereus, pilosocereus, sansevieria, agave and euphorbia families.
While most of them are kept in one of three greenhouses, about 500 grow outside in direct sunlight. One of the greenhouses is dedicated to aloe cactus plants.
Mr Al Mazroui says he has more than 50 types of the aloe plant.
The farm is full of cactus plants in various shapes and sizes. Some are taller than eight metres while others are about the size of a fist and can add a touch of green to one’s desk or bedside table.
Some have long, white and soft hairlike spines, such as the monkey's tail cactus that is grown in hanging baskets. Others have hard and spiky branching stems.
“This is agave,” he points at a plant with large leaves ending in sharp tips. “[People] produce rope from its leaves.”
Many of the farm’s plants have health and medicinal benefits. The leaves of euphorbia can help diabetes patients, he says. Aloe vera is widely used to relieve sunburn and heal wounds.
Mr Al Mazroui imports the succulent plants from countries around the world, including the US, Mexico, Egypt, India, Italy, South Africa, Mozambique, the Philippines, Indonesia and Tanzania.
The plants do not require a lot of fertiliser. They are watered by hand once in 10 days in summer and once a month during winter. Water from a reservoir, which contains fish waste, is used for irrigation.
“This is the saguaro species,” Mr Al Mazroui says as he lifts a small pot. The cactus was grown from the seed of a plant imported from Italy.
“This size is what we imported, the small size. And see there, after 10, 20 years, they become like this. They grow more than six metres,” he says, pointing at tall plants that have torn open the roof of the greenhouse.
All of the plants have been grown from the farm’s own seeds, which Mr Al Mazroui and his two helpers have carefully selected from previous harvests.
“When we put the seed [in a pot], we give water one time and we cover it for one year.”
The pots are kept covered to maintain the same temperature and humidity.
Some of the plants are offered for sale to visitors, with prices ranging from Dh10 to Dh60. Mr Al Mazroui says about 90 per cent of the farm’s plants are not available on the market.
The most popular plant with visitors is sansevieria, he says. This type is characterised by its stiff, upright, sword-like leaves.
“These plants can be placed inside, as well as outside the house. They need little sunlight and have beautiful leaves.”
Al Mazroui has his eyes set on establishing the world’s largest cactus farm. He was inspired after he visited a cactus farm in Egypt, which he believes is the biggest in the Middle East.
“The UAE always strives to be number one in everything. Then why can’t it be number one in [growing] cactus? I want to increase the number of plants,” he says.
“I want more species but I don’t have space. I hope to find some big land to make a big garden for cactus.”
Zakat definitions
Zakat: an Arabic word meaning ‘to cleanse’ or ‘purification’.
Nisab: the minimum amount that a Muslim must have before being obliged to pay zakat. Traditionally, the nisab threshold was 87.48 grams of gold, or 612.36 grams of silver. The monetary value of the nisab therefore varies by current prices and currencies.
Zakat Al Mal: the ‘cleansing’ of wealth, as one of the five pillars of Islam; a spiritual duty for all Muslims meeting the ‘nisab’ wealth criteria in a lunar year, to pay 2.5 per cent of their wealth in alms to the deserving and needy.
Zakat Al Fitr: a donation to charity given during Ramadan, before Eid Al Fitr, in the form of food. Every adult Muslim who possesses food in excess of the needs of themselves and their family must pay two qadahs (an old measure just over 2 kilograms) of flour, wheat, barley or rice from each person in a household, as a minimum.
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Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
Most sought after workplace benefits in the UAE
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- Financial well-being incentives
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Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
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- Torrijos Palace dome
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Power: 579hp
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Favourite Quote: Prophet Mohammad's quotes There is reward for kindness to every living thing and A good man treats women with honour
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