“The Mohammed bin Zayed Water Initiative” launches the “Water Challenge” program

The “Mohammed bin Zayed Water Initiative” today launched the “Water Challenge” program, which aims to contribute to accelerating the development and application of innovative solutions to enhance the efficiency of water use, while the initiative announced the first challenge within the series of challenges of the program entitled “Water Challenge for Agriculture” to push the wheel of innovation in developing effective and practical technologies and solutions that contribute to reducing water consumption in the agricultural sector, and maintaining crop productivity and improving them.

The “Water for Agriculture Challenge”, whose total prize is 8 million dirhams, receives the participation of innovators from within the United Arab Emirates and around the world, where the partners will be asked to test and review the possibility of applying their innovative solutions in the country by December 2026, with the possibility of applying them to other regions facing similar challenges.

Promote water consumption efficiency

The “Water Challenge” program will include the launch of a challenge challenge to search for innovative solutions that contribute to enhancing water efficiency, and the possibility of effectively applying them in different sectors. The program also aims to find and finance practical solutions to implement it in the UAE, with the possibility of expanding its implementation in other countries that suffer from the challenges of water scarcity.

The “Water for Agriculture Challenge” was launched in cooperation with the Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority, and the “Aspire” companies, the arm of business development and the management of technological projects at the “Advanced Technology Research Council”, and “baskets” specialized in the field of fresh food products and agricultural technology.

Aisha Al -Ateeqi, Executive Director of the Mohammed bin Zayed Water Initiative, said: The launch of the first challenge of water is in line with the efforts of the ‘Mohammed bin Zayed Water Initiative’ to contribute to accelerating the pace of innovation through programs that support the development of solutions and practical techniques that enhance water efficiency and encourage technological innovation.

She added: The use of water in the agricultural sector is about 70% of the total water consumption in the world, which represents a major challenge, especially in the arid areas that suffer from water scarcity.

Al -Ateeqi said: We seek through ‘water challenge for agriculture’ to discover and test innovative technological solutions that enhance agricultural productivity and limit the consumption of water resources in the UAE, as well as the possibility of applying it later in other regions around the world suffering from similar climate conditions. The initiative continuously contributes to accelerating the development of innovative and new solutions and supporting its implementation on a large scale, as part of its firm commitment to achieving its vision of enabling the world to ensure the abundance of sustainable water resources for all at appropriate costs.

False innovative solutions

For its part, Moza Suhail Al -Muhairi, Deputy Director General of the Abu Dhabi Authority for Agriculture and Food Safety for Organizational and Administrative Affairs, said: We are pleased to cooperate with the ‘Mohammed bin Zayed Water Initiative’ and its partners to launch this important challenge, which reflects our joint commitment to enhance the efficiency of water consumption in the agricultural sector in areas that suffer from water scarcity.

She added: Through this partnership, we will work to provide our expertise in sustainable agriculture, and to provide strategic supervision, experience and technical knowledge to contribute to ensuring the innovative solutions that won the requirements and long -term goals for Abu Dhabi and the UAE to achieve food security and preserve vital resources, noting that this challenge embodies the support and encouragement Agricultural productivity, and protecting the natural resources of the country for future generations.

Al -Muhairi said: Through this cooperation, we aim to accelerate the adoption of innovative technologies and solutions that contribute to enhancing the efficiency of water consumption by bridging the gap between the scientific side and effective application on the ground, in addition to proving the feasibility of their use in the local agricultural sector by testing and expanding the scope of benefit from it.

For his part, Stephen Timbano, CEO of Aspire, said: Innovation is one of the main components to achieve agricultural sustainability, while the ‘water challenge for agriculture’ aims to expand the horizons of possible solutions by ensuring the application of the latest technologies and research results actually in the agricultural sector. We are proud to cooperate with the ‘Mohammed bin Zayed Water Initiative’ through this challenge, which is one of the important initiatives that support the transformation of innovative solutions into concrete results in the UAE and abroad.

Salmin Obaid Al -Ameri, CEO of “Sallal” company, said: The water scarcity is a major challenge for the agricultural sector in the UAE, and its treatment requires concerted efforts and the adoption of an approach to innovation and joint action.

Important awards

The teams participating in the challenge must provide innovative solutions with feasibility, proven during the registration process, and a valid for the testing and practical implementation in the relevant sectors in the UAE during the challenge period.

The winning team will receive a prize of 3.7 million dirhams out of the total value of the prize of 8 million dirhams, in addition to an opportunity to test and display its innovative technology in the UAE, while the value of the remaining prize will be distributed to the teams that qualify for the final stage.

The competing teams in the challenge will be subject to the process of evaluation and selection to determine the most innovative, influential and effective solutions, through application offers, in addition to testing their solutions in the UAE to prove their results and their potential impact on the ground.

It is noteworthy that the door for participation in “Water for Agriculture” is currently open until the date of the registration period on June 30, 2025, through the allocated electronic registration portal ”