DUBAI // A Dh7.3 million project to halve the amount of water used by agricultural cooling systems through redesign is to begin in January.
Dr Naem Mazahrih, an irrigation and water management specialist, said the amount of water used in greenhouses to keep plants cool was much higher than the amount used to sustain them.
“This is the main problem facing protected agriculture in the Arabian Peninsula,” said Dr Mazahrih, of the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas in Dubai, which is handling the project.
Depending on the season, water use for cooling greenhouses can be five times higher than the amount consumed by the plants in the greenhouses, he said.
“Protected cultivation doesn’t save water,” Dr Mazahrih said. “So we want to try three to four types of different cooling systems.”
Cooling systems use evaporation pads that cool outdoor air by between 5°C and 10°C.
“It’s not a lot and it uses a lot of water,” he said. “Water goes through the system, cools it and it evaporates, which makes cold air.
“But we need to try different experiments to avoid using any water. There’s pressure on the groundwater, which is important for the future.
“It will eventually become saline and there’s no rainfall to increase it, so we need to save every drop of water and use it as efficiently as we can.”
One way of doing that is to reduce the temperature of the water going through the evaporation pads. Another is recirculating the air between different greenhouses.
“Outside it’s 50°C but if we circulate the air between different greenhouses, that will reduce the evaporation from 50 per cent to 30 per cent, depending on the plant,” Dr Mazahrih said.
“There’s a lot of humidity inside the greenhouses which can create diseases to plants, such as wilting, so we need to reduce the evaporation in building.
“The new system will condense the air to reduce the humidity, so we’re using water from the humidity in the air.”
The centre plans to use solar energy to power the systems.
“We want to compare how much water we can save,” Dr Mazahrih said.
“We will test these methods on a farm at the Ministry of Environment and Water’s research station in Hamraniyah, near Ras Al Khaimah, and we expect preliminary results in the first two years.”
If successful, the three year-programme will expand to other farms in the UAE and the region.
“In the past we found that cooling systems consumed too much water, so if we can reduce it we can plant more with the same amount of water,” he said.
“We’re hoping to reduce it by 10 to 50 per cent.”
Agricultural experts said cooling was an important element for fresh produce, given the high temperatures in the region.
“It’s an area that can potentially deliver significant improvements, in terms of efficiency and effectiveness,” said Nicholas Lodge, an agricultural expert at the Abu Dhabi consultancy Clarity.
“Any research in the sector is welcome and, given the highly stressed environment in this region – notably the lack of water, arable land, growing population and increased meat consumption – the sooner the better.”
Mr Lodge said making use of resources that were abundant in the region, such as seawater and sunlight, could lead to more sustainable approaches.
“But it is also important not to lose sight of the big picture, and a holistic approach is ultimately what is needed,” he said.
“We should also look at whether certain agricultural activities or crops still make sense, or whether we should curtail these and redeploy precious resources in other ways.
“High-value, perishable produce, like herbs and lettuce, lends itself to intensive production using technology that can address the issues that come with this region’s climatic conditions.”
cmalek@thenational.ae
Left Bank: Art, Passion and Rebirth of Paris 1940-1950
Agnes Poirer, Bloomsbury
match info
Southampton 2 (Ings 32' & pen 89') Tottenham Hotspur 5 (Son 45', 47', 64', & 73', Kane 82')
Man of the match Son Heung-min (Tottenham)
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A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
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India team for Sri Lanka series
Test squad: Rohit Sharma (captain), Priyank Panchal, Mayank Agarwal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Shubhman Gill, Rishabh Pant (wk), KS Bharath (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Jayant Yadav, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Sourabh Kumar, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah.
T20 squad: Rohit Sharma (captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, Surya Kumar Yadav, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan (wk), Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Chahar, Deepak Hooda, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Avesh Khan
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
Jewel of the Expo 2020
252 projectors installed on Al Wasl dome
13.6km of steel used in the structure that makes it equal in length to 16 Burj Khalifas
550 tonnes of moulded steel were raised last year to cap the dome
724,000 cubic metres is the space it encloses
Stands taller than the leaning tower of Pisa
Steel trellis dome is one of the largest single structures on site
The size of 16 tennis courts and weighs as much as 500 elephants
Al Wasl means connection in Arabic
World’s largest 360-degree projection surface
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
The biog:
Languages: Arabic, Farsi, Hindi, basic Russian
Favourite food: Pizza
Best food on the road: rice
Favourite colour: silver
Favourite bike: Gold Wing, Honda
Favourite biking destination: Canada
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MO
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SERIE A FIXTURES
Friday (UAE kick-off times)
Sassuolo v Bologna (11.45pm)
Saturday
Brescia v Torino (6pm)
Inter Milan v Verona (9pm)
Napoli v Genoa (11.45pm)
Sunday
Cagliari v Verona (3.30pm)
Udinese v SPAL (6pm)
Sampdoria v Atalanta (6pm)
Lazio v Lecce (6pm)
Parma v Roma (9pm)
Juventus v Milan (11.45pm)
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Duterte Harry: Fire and Fury in the Philippines
Jonathan Miller, Scribe Publications
