By Cassam Tupsy
History bears testimony to the fact that Saudi Arabia was an arid land with an extremely low rainfall of 10 cm annually. Without rivers and lakes it was really difficult to develop agriculture in that vast desert land. However, with the advent of new technology a spectacular and gigantic stride has been made in the agricultural sector. It is to note that Saudi Arabia has attained self sufficiency in agriculture.
Saudi Arabia is the 14th biggest country in the world, covering an area similar to Eastern Europe. However, an unusual thing occurred thereby giving the scientists of the world a real “case-tête chinois”. Previously only 450 km of fertile land was available in Saudi Arabia but due to modern technology the barren land was transformed into arable one. Currently a surface of 35000 km of fertile land as vast as the Pays bas and three times bigger than Qatar is exploited. How such incredible transformation took place is beyond the experts’ understanding.
However, Saudi Arabia possesses a reserve of 17% of world petrol but the funny news is that water is more expensive than petrol in that country. Due to scarcity of water, the country made herculean effort to satisfy people needs’ in food and water. Going back to the past, Saudi Arabia was highly dependent on other countries as far as the import of food stuff was concerned.
Since the 70’s, the country has made an unprecedented development in this domain and today, Saudi Arabia can boast to be the leader in the Middle East as far as agricultural produce is concerned. Consequently, Saudi Arabia has become a great exporter of dates, milk dairy, wheat, barley, eggs, fish and other food products towards international market. Great amount of wheat is exported to USA, China Japan and to other thirty countries among which are found ex-satellite countries of the Soviet Union. Breeding place for Prawns and fish are located in Jeddah. After being self sufficient in these products, Saudi Arabia is able to export the excess to other countries. Fruits and vegetables are likely to be produced enormously. Half a million of dates are produced annually enabling the country to donate part of these fruits to other countries.
In order to boost up agriculture, loans are granted to farmers without interest. The ministry of Agriculture monitors this sector and sees to it that all facilities are provided to the producer so that agricultural produce can be ramp up. Road net works are developed in order to facilitate transportation of the products to different local markets.
In order to meet demand for drinking water, boreholes are dug and great amount of water is stocked in big lakes. Desalination plants are set up in order to turn salt water into drinking water. It is to note that three million cubic meter of water is desalinated per day. Recycle water helps producing electricity and it also helps to irrigate the fields. For fruit production a research station is located at Al Hikma in Jazan.
The blessed land of the Holy prophet SAW is blooming with an eco-friendly system. By the rapid development of agriculture, it is likely to believe that the country is well-endowed with the gift of nature. A real diversification of industries is taking place in Saudi Arabia. The exportation of black gold and green products has made Saudi Arabia a leader in that part of the world.
