The success of the wheat farm in Sharjah of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) marks an important step in enhancing food self-sufficiency for the country.
The UAE has long relied on food imports, importing about 1.7 million tons of wheat each year.
Against the desert sands of Sharjah, the wheat farm, which applies desalinated water for irrigation, commenced operations in 2022 and is expected to expand to 1,900 hectares by the end of this year.
Experts report that a major milestone has been achieved with the successful cultivation of locally adapted wheat varieties in specialized breeding fields, tailored to thrive in the UAE's unique climate conditions.
Meanwhile, the smart irrigation system, which employs ground sensors and weather stations to monitor soil moisture in real time, enables the precise irrigation control to ensure healthy crop growth even under extreme conditions.
Furthermore, only a dozen workers are required to manage wheat cultivation on the 1,900-hectare farm, with irrigation and fertilization operations precisely controlled by advanced digital systems.
"We started planting in October till March, and within this season, as I mentioned, we have used state-of-the-art technologies. We have thermal satellite imagery, daily ones that can tell us more than 17 kinds of data that we can get out of it. For example, the soil moisture, the nitrogen in the soil, the water status of the soil and so on," explained Abdelaziz Hassooni, Programmer at the Sharjah Agriculture and Livestock Department.
In the future, this farm will not only supply the local market but may also become a model for desert agriculture, providing a reference for other regions.
Smart agricultural technology turns deserts into farmlands in UAE
Smart agricultural technology turns deserts into farmlands in UAE
The ongoing China-ASEAN Expo serves as a bridge for China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to boost trade flows, helping both sides reap shared development dividends.
Scheduled to run from Sept 17 to 21 in Nanning City of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the event draws more than 3,400 exhibitors from over 70 countries and regions.
This year, Timor-Leste is participating for the first time as a full ASEAN member and a co-host of the expo, with participants noting results have exceeded expectations, bolstered by China's vast market.
"I brought 60 packages of 250-gram coffee, which would be sold out in one day. Now I'm thinking that China market is open for everybody and it's very huge," said an exhibitor from Timor-Leste.
Participants also hailed the construction of China's Pinglu Canal, which officially opened to traffic on Wednesday.
The 134.2-km-long canal runs from Hengzhou, a county-level city in Guangxi, to the Beibu Gulf, the closest maritime outlet for much of southwest China.
The canal becomes a cost-competitive river-sea intermodal shortcut connecting ASEAN producers with the vast consumer market in southwest China, said the participants.
"In the past, shipments into the southwest China usually went by sea to Guangzhou and then overlands. Too many handover made it hard to keep products fresh. Losses were high and transit time was unreliable. Now that the canal is open, we can enter [the] Guangxi [Zhuang Autonomous Region] directly from the Beibu Gulf and move on to Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan restaurants, faster onto the supermarket shelves and tables in the southeast [part of China]," said an exhibitor from Vietnam.
With the formal signing of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (FTA) 3.0 Upgrade Protocol in Oct 2025, bilateral cooperation has expanded beyond economic and trade areas to emerging fields such as the digital economy and the green economy.
"I am looking for an investor to develop agriculture and integrated tourism with us in Malaysia," said an exhibitor from Malaysia.
Economic ties between China and ASEAN have continued to deepen. Bilateral trade topped 1 trillion U.S. dollars for the first time in 2025, totaling 1.05 trillion dollars, up 7.4 percent year on year. In the first seven months of 2026, trade between the two sides reached 744.41 billion dollars, an increase of 24.7 percent year on year and accounting for 21.8 percent of China's total foreign trade.
China has remained ASEAN's largest trading partner for 17 consecutive years, while ASEAN has been China's largest trading partner for six successive years.
China-ASEAN Expo boosts bilateral cooperation, delivers shared dividends
