The UAE is not really fit for agriculture. Perhaps a few valleys in the north of the country, where some modest mountains create a bit of shade and hold some water, or in the interior near Al Ain, once an oasis and now a city of 570,000.

But most of the country is just … sand.

You know it from bending over and picking it up a handful of UAE dust. To call it “earth” would be incorrect, because that suggests some organic matter, some nutrients. These are lifeless crystals of shattered rock. Like a beach, except a bit compacted, here in the big cities.

What is odd, given the state of the soil, is the country’s preoccupation with agriculture.

In this case … potatoes.

Farmers are mounting a campaign to get consumers to buy local potatoes, as reported in The National.

They are suggesting that their chemical-free spuds are superior to what those purchased in quantity here, generally from Saudi Arabia.

The problem is that imported potatoes are cheaper, and bigger, and the leading supermarket chain in the country, LuLu, does not stock local potatoes.

I have never been to Idaho, one of the dozen or so U.S. states I have missed. But I know that the slogan on the state’s license plates is “Famous Potatoes” … and that the state has an Idaho Potato Commission for the promotion of the spud.

At any rate, Idaho is a generally dry place, but nothing like the UAE … and the crop of potatoes their is exponentially larger. To wit: Idaho harvests 13 billion pounds of potatoes every year; the UAE has harvested about 2,400 pounds, so far this year.

The notion of local farms, and supporting them, is a popular one here. No country on the planet is comfortable with the idea that it cannot support its people, internally, with foodstuffs, and the statistic usually cited here is that the UAE has on hand enough food to feed the population for about a week.

But when you are as desert-y as is the UAE, a less emotional case can be made that the country shouldn’t bother with anything that does not grow naturally — pretty much anything that isn’t dates from palm trees.

Agriculture accounts for 90 percent of the water usage here, and nearly all of it is desalinated water, made at great cost to the environment — burning the fuel to power the desalination plants, and pumping the briny remainder of water back into the Gulf.

So, the idea of local potatoes … a curiosity. Impressed it can be done at all here.

Long-term, it probably is not worth the effort. The country probably is better off “owning” what it is — a desert with lots and lots of oil that can buy itself all it needs to eat.