Quartz 5

Towards sustainable food production systems in Qatar: Assessment of the viability of aquaponics

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tagsmeta/type/policy, meta/region/middle-east

11 min read

Towards sustainable food production systems in Qatar: Assessment of the viability of aquaponics

Metadata

  • Cite key: abusinSustainableFoodProduction2020
  • Item type: Journal Article
  • Authors: S. Abusin, B. Mandikiana
  • Affiliation: The Social and Economic Survey Research Institute (SESRI), Qatar University, P.O. Box 2713, Doha, Qatar (p.1)
  • Journal: Global Food Security 25 (2020) 100349
  • Date: 06/2020
  • Date added: 2021-02-04
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.gfs.2020.100349
  • Funding: “This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.” (p.6)
  • URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2020.100349
  • PDF: Abusin and Mandikiana - 2020 - Towards sustainable food production systems in Qat.pdf

Opinion

A short narrative/policy piece, not a research paper — no fieldwork, no data collected in Qatar itself, and no systematic search method stated (so it does not qualify as a systematic review either). Its value is as a context-setter (Qatar’s water/food-import situation) and as a pointer to other papers (Suhl et al. 2016, Love et al. 2015, Delaide et al. 2016, Goddek et al.’s decoupled-systems work) rather than as a source of extractable numbers. Nearly every figure in the paper is a secondary citation of someone else’s finding, several without in-text attribution at all (e.g. the “>40% of world population” water-scarcity claim, the “~90% food import” claim). Worth keeping in the vault for its two tables (hydroponic-system typology; aquaponics challenges taxonomy) and its curated reference list, not for any number it reports as its own.

Abstract

Biophysical environments, socio-economic, and political shocks that hamper food production and affect access to food are a treat towards a country’s capacity to achieve and maintain food security. Over the past couple of decades, food production at a commercial scale in non-traditional food production environments have been emerging. Among other agricultural systems, the opportunities aquaponics systems present are becoming more apparent. Nonetheless, aquaponics’ ability to bring together hydroponics and aquaculture to produce nutritious food has prompted more attention in terms of its economic viability and sustainability. In this paper, we present the reasons why aquaponics might be part of the solution in arid countries with particular focus on the State of Qatar.

Summary

This is a narrative/policy paper arguing that aquaponics deserves a place in Qatar’s (and the wider Gulf region’s) food-security strategy, given the country’s minimal arable land, extreme desalination-dependent water supply, ~90% food-import reliance, and exposure to the 2017 blockade. The authors lay out the general case for aquaponics over stand-alone aquaculture or hydroponics (drawing entirely on other groups’ published work, especially Goddek and colleagues’ decoupled multi-loop system research and Suhl et al. 2016’s tomato aquaponics-vs-hydroponics comparison), summarize technical, socio-ecological, and economic challenges in two typology tables, and close with Qatar-specific policy recommendations (institutional support via the Qatar National Food Security Program, public-private partnerships, marketing/certification, and economic-diversification framing). No original data — Qatari or otherwise — is collected, measured, or analysed anywhere in the paper; every quantitative claim is attributed (or, in a few cases, left unattributed) to a cited secondary source. It is useful as an orientation piece and reference list for Gulf/arid-region aquaponics but contributes no primary findings of its own.

Review scope

  • Region / system covered: State of Qatar and, by extension, the wider Gulf/Middle East region; arid, non-soil food production (aquaponics, hydroponics, aquaculture) generally, no specific facility studied
  • Argument: aquaponics should be adopted as part of Qatar’s food-security and sustainable-agriculture strategy because it addresses the country’s water scarcity, minimal arable land, high food-import dependence, and exposure to political/supply shocks (e.g. the 2017 blockade), while also supporting economic diversification goals (Qatar Vision 2030)
  • Evidence base: narrative synthesis of secondary sources — no search string, database list, or inclusion criteria stated anywhere in the paper; ~65 references, overwhelmingly other reviews, modelling papers, and a handful of primary experiments/surveys cited for single figures
  • Typologies or frameworks introduced: Table 1 (p.3) — typology of hydroponic system types used in aquaponics (DWC/floating raft, NFT, flow-through/tidal, wick, drip, aeroponics), sourced from Maucieri et al. (2019); Table 2 (p.4) — challenges in aquaponics by category (Technical / Socio-ecological / Economic / Scientific and Technological), sourced from Goddek (2015) and Goddek et al. (2019a,b)
  • Key figures cited: “absolute water scarcity” projected to affect ~1.8 billion people by 2025 [secondary, cites Shomar et al. 2014] (p.1); Qatar fish production gap of ~6,000 tonnes/year in 2018 [secondary, cites Valin et al. 2014] (p.2); Qatar population grew >400% from ~500,000 (1995) to ~2.6 million [secondary, cites MDPS 2017] (p.2); Gulf states spend 5–12% of total electricity on groundwater pumping/desalination [secondary, cites Siddiqi and Anadon, 2011] (p.2); global aquaponics profitability survey found “more than half of the enterprises were profitable, yet approximately a third incurred losses” [secondary, cites Love et al. 2015] (p.4)

Qatar’s food-security context

This paper: Qatar is framed as an 11,000 km² subtropical desert with ~81 mm annual rainfall and temperatures above 45 °C (p.2, uncited), minimal arable land, and near-total reliance on desalinated/non-renewable groundwater. The paper states Qatar “imported approximately 90% of its food” before the 2008 global food crisis (p.2) — this figure is stated in running text with no citation attached to the sentence itself. Population is reported to have grown from an estimated 500,000 (1995) to ~2.6 million [secondary, cites MDPS, 2017] (p.2).

Compared with:

  • todo Shomar Darwish Rowell 2014 — Qatar-specific integrated water resources management analysis, the primary source behind the “1.8 billion by 2025” and general water-scarcity framing used here (p.1)

Aquaponics vs. stand-alone aquaculture/hydroponics

This paper: Argues aquaponics resolves aquaculture’s water-pollution/waste problem and hydroponics’ nutrient-solution cost/pollution problem simultaneously (p.3), and that decoupled (multi-loop) systems outperform single-loop/coupled systems by letting each subsystem (fish, plants) run at its own optimum rather than a shared compromise (p.3-4). Cites Suhl et al. (2016) as demonstrating “the overall merits of aquaponics over hydroponics” in a tomato production comparison (p.3) — this is a secondary characterisation of Suhl et al.’s own experimental results, not a number this paper measured.

Compared with:

Economic viability

This paper: Reports a global survey finding “more than half of the enterprises were profitable, yet approximately a third incurred losses” [secondary, cites Love et al. 2015] (p.4). States aquaponics requires “a substantial initial investment” [secondary, cites Tokunaga et al. 2015] and that location (proximity to urban/peri-urban markets, land acquisition cost) materially affects profitability [secondary, cites Asciuto et al. 2019; Joyce et al. 2019] (p.5). No original economic analysis for Qatar is performed — the paper only asserts that Gulf conditions (low energy cost, high solar radiation) are “likely to be favorable” [secondary, cites Turnšek et al. 2019] (p.6).

Compared with:

Technical and socio-ecological challenges

This paper: Table 2 (p.4) categorises challenges as Technical (multidisciplinary complexity, pH stabilisation, nutrient-flow integration, phosphorus management, pest/disease management, nitrate balancing), Socio-ecological (mineral recycling need, energy demand, overfishing, water scarcity, urban farming/short supply chains), Economic (high capital requirements, limited economies of scale, lack of crop diversification, consumer perceptions, price volatility, no standard system design, urban location restrictions), and Scientific/Technological (optimised nutrient reclamation, condenser reuse of depleted water, solar-powered designs) — reproduced from Goddek (2015) and Goddek et al. (2019a,b), not original to this paper.

Compared with:

  • todo Goddek Espinal Delaide Jijakli Schmautz Wuertz Keesman 2016 — system dynamics design approach for decoupled aquaponics, underlying much of the “decoupled beats coupled” argument used throughout (p.3-4)
  • todo Li et al 2019 — pilot-scale aquaponics system using hydroponics and immobilised biofilm for water quality control, cited as evidence a “microbial system degrades wastes significantly and can help improve the water quality” (p.4)

Linked claims

Citations to chase

  • todo Shomar, Darwish, Rowell (2014) — Qatar-specific water resources study behind the “1.8 billion by 2025” water-scarcity figure this paper repeats
  • todo Suhl et al. (2016) — tomato aquaponics vs. hydroponics; already in zotero-export.csv (key SSBJAAS6) but not yet extracted into this vault’s notes/
  • todo Delaide, Goddek, Gott, Soyeurt, Jijakli (2016) — lettuce growth performance, aquaponics vs. hydroponics
  • todo Delaide, Teerlinck, Decombel, Bleyaert (2019) — pikeperch RAS wastewater effect on hydroponic tomato
  • todo Love, Fry, Li, Hill, Genello, Semmens, Thompson (2015) — international commercial aquaponics profitability survey
  • todo Asciuto, Schimmenti, Cottone, Borsellino (2019) — financial feasibility of a Mediterranean urban aquaponics system
  • todo Tokunaga, Tamaru, Ako, Leung (2015) — economics of small-scale commercial aquaponics in Hawaii
  • todo Li et al. (2019) — pilot-scale aquaponics water-quality performance with immobilised biofilm
  • todo Goddek et al. (2015) — “Challenges of sustainable and commercial aquaponics,” source of Table 2’s challenge taxonomy

Extraction notes

Type classification: policy. The paper collects no original data (no site visited, no system operated, no survey run by these authors); it is explicitly self-described as a “policy paper” (p.6, Discussion and conclusion) arguing for aquaponics adoption in Qatar, built on a narrative synthesis of others’ work with no stated search strategy (so not systematic-review) and a clear recommendation/advocacy structure (Institutional support, Private-public partnerships, Economic development sections) rather than a neutral survey of the field. Per SCHEMA.md decision rule 1 (“did the authors collect data themselves? No -> secondary/non-research”), and given the advocacy framing, policy fits better than narrative-review.

Contradictions: none found. This is a synthesis paper with no dataset of its own to internally contradict; the only candidate for a ⚠️ would be secondary figures attributed inconsistently, and none were found — each cited figure appears once, consistently. No WARN-BLOCK/WARN-MATERIAL/WARN-CHECK/WARN-MINOR flags raised. No entries added to REVIEW.md.

[not reported] / [unclear] fields:

  • Land area (~11,000 km²), annual rainfall (~81 mm), and “absolute temperate above 45 °C” (p.2) are stated without any citation — source [unclear].
  • The “~90% of food imported” figure (p.2) and the “>40% of the worldwide population” affected by water scarcity (p.1) are both stated in running text with no citation attached to the specific sentence — source [unclear] (the water-scarcity sentence sits just before the cited “1.8 billion by 2025” Shomar et al. 2014 claim, so it may share that source, but the paper does not say so explicitly).
  • No DOI issue: DOI resolved via zotero-export.csv match (row with itemKey 9GWBQ4UH), which agrees with the DOI printed on p.1 of the PDF and with a Crossref-style record. No discrepancy to flag.

CSV rows: none produced. Per SCHEMA.md, only experiment, quasi-experiment, field-trial, and exploratory papers get trials.csv/plant.csv rows; this is a policy paper, so both out/abusinSustainableFoodProduction2020.trials.csv and out/abusinSustainableFoodProduction2020.plant.csv contain header-only files with zero data rows.

Tags: Meta/Type/Policy (new leaf under Meta/Type/, consistent with the experiment leaves already used by other notes in this vault), Meta/Region/Middle-East (new leaf; existing region leaves in the vault are Africa, North-America, South-Asia, South-America — Middle-East follows the same hyphenated naming convention). No Meta/Fish/ or Meta/Plant/ tags: the paper mentions tilapia, shrimp, tomatoes, and lettuce only as examples of what aquaponics/aquaculture can produce elsewhere, never as an organism this paper itself studied under experimental conditions.

Water-quality panel: none present. This paper reports no water-chemistry measurements of any kind (no pH, EC, DO, temperature, TAN, NO2-N, or NO3-N values) — it only discusses water quality in general/qualitative terms (p.4, Socio-ecological aspects) and via secondary citation. Nothing was withheld from plant.csv or trials.csv on this basis; there is simply no such data in the source.

Source: Abusin and Mandikiana - 2020 - Towards sustainable food production systems in Qat.pdf

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