Dates, Dishdash and Cowboy hats

Ibrahim and some locals

During my time at ICBA, I was taken out to some of the farms and research stations in the area.

My guide for the day was the charismatic Ibrahim Ahmad Bin Taher. We would have been a site to see with Ibrahim, in a typical shumagg and dishdash that most Emirates men wear and me in my cowboy hat, pulling up at a roadside merchant in a car with UN number plates asking to buy some of the local dates. I bet there was some discussion after we left.

I learnt that there is no large scale farming here and most farms are only a couple of hectares at best. Some of the soil I saw had some stone in it but the majority was sandy.