Book explains Zayed’s green vision

abu dhabi — A UAE minister recently launched a book on how and why the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan strived to turn the desert green.

Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Tolerance and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Khalifa International Award for Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation, on Tuesday unveiled the book that tackled the holistic approach the UAE’s founding father had adopted to develop agriculture in the UAE.

“Agriculture, in the opinion of Sheikh Zayed, represents the roots of stability for any community. Agriculture is not just the ‘colour green defeating the colour yellow of the sands’, as some used to say when speaking or writing about the life of Sheikh Zayed. Agriculture, in his belief and conviction, was the central element of stability, as there can be no civilisation or advancement without stability,” Sheikh Nahyan said at the launch of the Year of Zayed book, which was published by the Award’s General Secretariat.

He said living in the desert was the greatest challenge for Sheikh Zayed, who realised in 1946 — when he was then the Ruler’s Representative in the Eastern Region of Abu Dhabi — how important it was to provide water and help people cultivate the desert.

Sheikh Nahyan added that the founding father cared immensely about the UAE’s people, and the question back then was how to empower them to defeat the desert where they used to live.

“Agriculture is the main tool for producing food and construction material and is, therefore, a necessity. Among Sheikh Zayed’s most famous sayings was ‘give me agriculture, and I will guarantee you a civilisation,’” Sheikh Nahyan said. —

Give me agriculture, and I will guarantee you a civilisation.”

Late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan