A new collaboration between Emirates Rawabi PSC and ReFarm Global Investments is hoping to rewrite the rulebook on agriculture and urban infrastructure in the UAE. Instead of limiting efforts to sustainable tweaks, the partnership sets out to integrate full-scale circular economy systems—targeting improved soil performance, reduced irrigation demand, and productive reuse of agricultural waste.
The alliance pairs Emirates Rawabi’s vertically integrated agribusiness platform with ReFarm’s closed-loop technologies, focusing on regenerative systems that go beyond cutting inputs. Together, they plan to demonstrate how circular agriculture can serve both food production and city infrastructure in high-stress, water-limited environments.
While food security remains a core goal, the scope extends far wider with green public spaces, irrigation networks, and municipal landscaping all part of the strategy. These sectors face increasing operational costs and environmental pressures, making them prime candidates for smarter, more self-sustaining solutions.
The collaboration aims to make the economics of soil, water, and waste work harder, longer, and more efficiently across both rural and urban contexts.
Emirates Rawabi, known for its operations across dairy, poultry, and feed production, brings significant industrial capability to the table. Its existing infrastructure—including solar-powered facilities, biogas units, and wastewater treatment through Emirates Rawabi Sustainable Solutions—creates a ready environment to scale regenerative practices without needing to build from scratch.
ReFarm Global complements this with technology that boosts soil biology, reduces reliance on synthetic inputs, and recycles agricultural by-products into usable resources. Their systems are designed to improve water retention, increase yields, and lower the long-term degradation of land—effectively turning farms into regenerative systems that perform better over time.
The commercial focus will be to test and scale systems that cut operational costs, deliver measurable productivity gains, and reduce the environmental liabilities of agriculture. Initial pilot projects will look at complete circular flows—from input material processing to output regeneration—and aim to provide a replicable model for the UAE and beyond.
Importantly, this initiative positions the UAE not just as a consumer of sustainability tech, but as a regional developer of systems that can influence markets in the wider Gulf and North Africa.
