Agriculture Policy in Saudi Arabia - Essay Example

 Agriculture Policy in Saudi Arabia Agricultural policy defines regulations that a country sets up concerning domestic agriculture and imports ofagricultural products with the hopes of achieving specific outcomes in their respective domestic market. Food security is a major goal of many countries one reason is to protect the country against the possibility that one can fail to get imports due to an embargo, poor produces from exporting countries and events such as war which may lead to delays or ultimately lead to cut off of food imports. That is exactly what Saudi Arabia has managed to achieve with their agricultural policy especially over the last three decades. This lead to improved balance of payments by minimizing the amount of imported food stuffs and also the Saudi Arabian government created employment for a portion of the population. Saudi Arabia’s ministry of agriculture is responsible for the agricultural policy which was adopted in the early 1970’s. Its main goal was to develop an agricultural sector with the capability of achieving food self sufficiency. This policy provided up to 1000 acres of free land, farm machinery and equipments discounts of up to 50% and this greatly aided the Saudi farmers increase the agriculture GDP share from 1.3% in 1970 to more than 7% in the year 2002.Free land under cultivation increased from under 400,000 acres in 1976 to more than 9 million acres to date. This has led to a significant increase in employment opportunities in the agricultural sectors. (Daryll E Ray) The Saudi government also embarked on a water impounding projects so as to get the full use of the four inches of rain they receive annually. Water is also obtained from deep wells and desalinization projects the main goals of this is to provide sufficient water for agriculture, industrial uses and also clean water for consumption by humans, Hence wastewater is treated and used for industrial and agricultural purposes and this has greatly helped in the transformation of deserts into fertile farmland. These desalinization plants have been put up to produce fresh water from the sea for industrial and urban use hence freeing up other sources of water for agricultural purposes. Dams have also been set up to trap seasonal floods. Agricultural research stations have also been set up by the government to aid the farmers figure out ways to adopt and improve their farming methods into the harsh desert climate (Daryll E Ray 2005). Apart from the ministry of agriculture other government agencies like the Saudi Arabian Agricultural Bank (SAAB), grants interest free loans, disburses subsidies. The grain silos and flour mills organization that buys and store wheat, delays in the construction of quality flour mills and also the production of animal feeds. These organizations also partner with the government to offer land reclamation and distribution programs and also the funding of agricultural research projects. The private sector has also come in and partnered with the government of Saudi Arabia to play in a big role in the offering of long term interest free loans, free seeds and fertilizer, technical and support services to the farmers, low cost fuel, electricity and water and the duty free imports of raw materials and machinery. The developments seen in Saudi Arabia are mind blowing considering that one third of its area is the world’s largest sand desert recording an average rainfall of four inches. These deserts have been transformed into large agricultural fields leading to a phenomenal growth in production of all basic foods and making Saudi Arabia self sufficient in all the major foodstuffs. The state now exports its products such as wheat, dates, watermelon, poultry, fresh eggs and milk. They produce cereals like barley, sorghum, barley, wheat and millet and in the regions where there is an abundance of water resources tomatoes, eggplants, potatoes, cucumbers, and onions are grown. (Dr. Thomas, 2013) However, the process in not without challenges, with the issue of water being the most serious. With the country’s realization of its potential on agriculture this may lead to over exploitation of its natural resources and as a result the growing population may end up competing with agriculture for these scarce resources. A balance between agricultural production and the use of its resources, especially water needs to be maintained and this has led the government to introduce a new plan on the cultivation of crops that require less water (Al Subaiee, 2005) With the country surpassing levels of self sufficiency they realized that producing surplus at the cost of over exploitation of water resources is not a sustainable practice and may cause serious damage to its water reservoirs. The government adopted roll back policies which lead to disallowing of wheat exportation. In 2008 the government abandoned all together plans on wheat sufficiency in order to save water and also aims to be 100 percent reliant on imports by the year 2016 .The government has also discouraged the growth of crops with a high water requirement. (Al-Subaiee, 2005) In late 2013 the Saudi Arabian government unveiled a new vision through collaboration aiming to deliver food security, sustain the environment and create economic opportunity, this new vision stresses the need to produce more food with fewer resources. The Saudi Arabian government has also introduced organic farming to meet the consumer demand for high quality healthy and organic products. This is as a result of an organic agricultural policy. This strategy was developed by the Humboldt University of Berlin, Deustche Gessellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenabeit (GIZ) GmbH and the research institute of organic agriculture (FiBL) Switzerland. This sector has seen remarkable growth since the commissioning of the GIZ to promote the development of organic farming in Saudi Arabia from the year 2005.their main objectives was to create a legal framework that supports further sector developments, turn the organic sector into a growing market, create awareness of the benefits of organic products and make sure that the demand of healthy food is continuously growing and make sure that the said products are available all over the country. With this form of support from the government further growth is expected in Saudi Arabia’s agricultural sector (Dr. Thomas 2013) References Daryll E Ray University of Tennessee Al Subaiee 2005 Al dakheel y 2005 water governance as part of IWRM in arid regions Dr. Thomas Bernet, Marketing Development Expert FIBL Switzerland Read More