Food security strategy to enhance food self-sufficiency and overcome international food supply chain crisis: the state of Qatar as a case study

Abstract The food security challenge continues to be one of the main issues that currently face the world despite improved economic development in many countries. The challenge is particularly unique in one of the world’s arid regions, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). This paper analyses the food security strategies of Qatar (one of the six countries that make up the GCC), especially since 2017 when the blockade of the country by its neighbors began. Qatar’s current food sufficiency was made possible by the country’s swift and profound changes in its food production strategies to ensure food security for its population. In order to provide locally sourced foods to the population, private and public initiatives were activated to support small farmers to distribute and supply their farm produce to local markets. The results show that Qatar has shifted from importing some food commodities to locally producing a high proportion of its foods to the extent of becoming an exporter of some farm produce. However, this increase in the local food production was achieved at the cost of depleting the local groundwater at a rate higher than the natural recharge. This paper thus critically assesses the specific situation of food security in Qatar that could be used as an example for other countries aiming to strengthen their food security, especially during transnational crises when international food supply chains suffer from unavoidable disruption (e.g., COVID-19 crisis).