The project is also exploring effective ways for growing date palm and quinoa using salt water.

Although the UAE has successfully cultivated a thriving tech infrastructure which ensures consistent, high-speed connectivity and a strong base for solutions like AI as well as cloud storage to functions, growing its own food remains a challenge that the country is addressing with innovation. Having to import 80% of the produce needed to fulfill nutritional needs of its growing population, the Emirates has turned to vertical farming, drones that plant trees and experiments with nano-clay to ensure food security in the coming decade.

In its race to become self-sufficient in every aspect including agriculture, the Middle East's tech hub has also deployed AI backed by accurate computer vision, to keep an eye on crops inside climate controlled farms planting the seeds of a green revolution in the desert. In order to maintain maximum productivity by avoiding loss of plants amidst effects of climate change that triggers droughts, the international centre for biosaline agriculture (ICBA), based out of Dubai, has unveiled a beta version of an app that can detect early signs of diseases in vegetation.

Designed to counter the impact of rapid salinisation in the gulf region, which is at risk of becoming uninhabitable in the decades to come, the platform will be available in Arabic, French and English, once its final avatar is launched in other Middle Eastern countries. The project working with farmers in the Emirates, Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt, is also exploring ways for cultivation of date palms, quinoa and salicornia plants using salt water in the rugged terrain.

Considering the fact that plant diseases alongside pests are responsible for 20% to 40% of crop losses every year, the app that detects symptoms in vegetation early on can facilitate a timely intervention to save the rest of the produce. Having data about these conditions can also lead to insights for weeding out such disorders in the near future, to scale up productivity.

Among other efforts to tackle challenges posed by the Emirati climate, domes are being developed to create conditions that are conducive for farming.