AgricultureID

Country agriculture profile · Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan

United Arab Emirates

The United Arab Emirates farms at the margins of what its hyper-arid climate allows: there are no perennial rivers, arable land is minimal, and cultivation depends on groundwater and desalinated water under intense heat and salinity pressure. Date palms at oases such as Al Ain and Liwa are the country’s signature crop and a cultural mainstay, while field agriculture is limited and increasingly supplemented by controlled-environment methods — greenhouses, hydroponics, and vertical farms — aimed at producing fresh vegetables locally. Camels, goats, and sheep are kept for heritage, meat, and milk, alongside intensive poultry and dairy units dependent on imported feed. As one of the most food-import-reliant countries in the world, the UAE frames domestic production largely as a food-security and agri-technology objective rather than a route to staple self-sufficiency.

Stable overview + dated statisticsUpdated: 2026-07-12

Farming systems (stable overview)

Climate zones

  • Hot desert (hyper-arid)
  • Coastal humid arid

Agroecological zones

  • Coastal desert plain
  • Interior oases (Al Ain, Liwa)
  • Hajar Mountain foothills

Dominant crop systems

  • Date palm cultivation at oases
  • Controlled-environment horticulture (greenhouse, hydroponic, and vertical farming)
  • Limited irrigated field vegetables and fodder
  • Amenity and heritage tree planting

Major livestock systems

  • Dromedary camel keeping for heritage, meat, and milk
  • Goats and sheep on limited rangeland
  • Intensive poultry and dairy units using imported feed

Irrigation: With no perennial surface water, irrigation relies on groundwater and desalinated water, and water scarcity is the fundamental limit on domestic production.

Latest verified data

Each value is the most recent available observation, shown with its own year and unit. Figures are periodically revised — treat them as dated, sourced statistics, not evergreen facts.

Latest available agricultural indicators, with year and unit
IndicatorValueUnitYear
Agricultural land5.52% of land area2023
Arable land0.71% of land area2023
Agriculture value added0.77% of GDP2024
Food production index124.86index (2014–2016 = 100)2022
Irrigated agricultural land23.99% of agricultural land2023
Average precipitation78mm per year2022
Rural population14.18% of total population2024

Source: World Bank Open Data (World Development Indicators) (opens in a new tab) · dataset version 2026-07-01 · retrieved 2026-07-12

Cereal yield over time

201220182023
United Arab Emirates — Cereal yield (kg per hectare). Bars start at zero.
Show data table
United Arab Emirates — Cereal yield in kg per hectare by year
Yearkg per hectare
201212,112.2
201336,761.9
201414,238.4
201535,291.3
201633,396.5
201730,801.8
201820,853.3
201923,842.3
202018,982.7
202119,809.2
202220,369.8
202323,306.5

Source: World Bank Open Data (World Development Indicators) (opens in a new tab) · dataset version 2026-07-01 · retrieved 2026-07-12

Derived indicator

Arable land as a share of agricultural land: 12.9 % of agricultural land (2023)

Derived value — formula arable-share-of-agricultural-land v1.0.0 (calc v1). Inputs: AG.LND.ARBL.ZS (0.7) ÷ AG.LND.AGRI.ZS (5.5). A derived ratio, not an observed statistic. Sensitive to rounding and to differing revision cycles of the two source series; omit rather than extrapolate when a common year is unavailable.

Documented crops & livestock

Agricultural institutions

  • Ministry of Climate Change and Environment (MOCCAE) — Federal ministry responsible for agriculture, food security, water, and the environment.
  • Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority (ADAFSA) — Emirate-level authority regulating and supporting agriculture and food safety in Abu Dhabi.

Data coverage & limitations

Covered by the World Bank WDI snapshots for land, production, yield, economy, inputs, and environment indicators, compiled largely from FAO and national sources.

  • Agricultural statistics are dated, versioned, and periodically revised; always read them together with their observation year and dataset version.
  • National statistical definitions — of agricultural land, irrigated area, holdings, and livestock categories — differ between countries and over time, which limits strict cross-country comparison.
  • Domestic output covers only a small share of food consumed, so national production figures say little about the country’s overall food supply, which is dominated by imports.
  • A large and growing part of production comes from controlled-environment and desalination-dependent systems whose water use and cost are not captured by land-area indicators.

Sources

This article draws on the following authoritative sources. See our sources & methodology for how they are selected.

  1. [1]World Bank Open Data — World Development Indicators (opens in a new tab)

    World Bank

    Authoritative

    Cited for: Agricultural statistics (WDI)

    Type:
    Intergovernmental organization
    Jurisdiction:
    Global
    Accessed:
    2026-07-12
  2. [2]FAO — Food and Agriculture Organization (opens in a new tab)

    Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

    Authoritative

    Cited for: Production systems, irrigation, and food-balance context

    Type:
    Intergovernmental organization
    Jurisdiction:
    Global
    Accessed:
    2026-07-12