The Ajman Business Women Council (AJBWC) of the Ajman Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), organized a training workshop entitled “Naqd Al Oud” to explain the basics of home and office agriculture and encourage businesswomen to invest in agriculture and benefit from modern agricultural technologies. The workshop is a part of the “Plant and Reap” initiative concerned with supporting agricultural and sustainable projects.

The training workshop held at the Ajman Youth Center was attended by Dr. Amna Khalifa Al Ali, Chairperson of the Ajman Business Women’s Council, representatives of government agencies and departments, a group of businesswomen who are members of the AJBWC, and who are interested in agricultural investment. The workshop was presented by Dr. Obaid Al Shamsi, an expert in modern agricultural methods.

At the beginning of the workshop, Dr. Amna Khalifa welcomed the attendees and stressed that the AJBWC is keen to raise the level of awareness among society members about the importance of agriculture, and seeks to increase the agricultural projects of its businesswomen members within the “Plant and Reap” initiative and in line with the UAE directions and goals to achieve food security. She explained that the workshop aims to spread awareness and knowledge among employees of government agencies about benefiting from innovative and sustainable vertical farming of leafy plants, in addition to spreading and disseminating the culture of agriculture in homes.

She gave the attendees an overview of the support opportunities and facilities provided by the AJBWC to establish sustainable agricultural projects in cooperation with expert firms and specialists in the field of hydroponic and vertical agriculture.

Dr. Obaid Al Shamsi gave an overview of the types of agriculture and the benefits of application in homes and institutions and explained the basics of growing leafy plants. The attendees planted a group of plants in a practical way, and the plants were distributed to the institutions participating in the workshop.

For her part, Dr. Sultana Othman, a business owner, presented an overview of “Mama's Farm" as an innovative Emirati model in home agriculture and reviewed a group of pioneering initiatives that are being implemented on the farm with a view to encouraging young people and housewives to benefit from modern agricultural methods.

On the sidelines of the workshop, Dr. Amna Khalifa launched the fifth cloud port of the “Rufof” initiative at the Ajman Youth Center. The initiative aims to provide a sustainable marketing platform to facilitate the sale of products of Bedaya license holders who are AJBWC members.

At the conclusion of the workshop, the Chairwoman of the AJBWC honored Dr. Sultana Othman and granted her honorary membership of the AJBWC in recognition of her efforts and support for the AJBWC programs and initiatives. She also confirmed that the AJBWC will seek to intensify its activities with the aim of encouraging and supporting women to enter the labor market, supporting their initiatives, investments, and projects, and adopting her ideas and motivation to enter the field of self-employment.