‘Khawlani beans’ successfully planted in Riyadh
The Ministry of Environment, Water, and Agriculture (MEWA) has begun cultivating Khawlani coffee beans in Riyadh using protected houses. The experiment was a resounding success, as coffee seedlings were brought in from southern farms and their cultivation was tested in Riyadh in protected buildings that provided the optimal environment for coffee production.
Dr. Ali Abdel Jalil, advisor to the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and supervisor of research and study of promising plants, told Al-Arabiya that the purpose of the experiment was to alter the production base for farmers and to introduce crops with high economic returns.
“We import more than 95% of our requirements from other countries, so we began developing it and selecting high-quality varieties in order to expand its cultivation throughout the kingdom,” he said.
“We began growing coffee in temperature-controlled protected zones and discovered that it began to produce twice as much as coffee grown in the open,” Dr. Abdel Jalil said, adding that this was a green light for farmers and investors to begin planting vast quantities of coffee.
In protected areas, the yield per tree was over 30 kilogrammes, whereas it was only 18 kilogrammes on open land.
“By providing clean water and healthy soil, productivity tripled,” he said, adding that if seedlings were planted at a specific size in greenhouses, they would produce within a year, whereas starting production on an open farm required two to three years.
According to Dr. Abdel Jalil, the ministry is in contact with specialists to investigate and evaluate the quality of greenhouse-produced milk. This product’s nutritional value, flavour, caffeine content, and, if any, chemical residues are all measured, allowing laboratories to see everything that goes into it.
