Kingdom promotes food productivity
Arab News 19 May 1990

Riyadh--- Minister of Industry and Electricity Abdulaziz Al-Zamil will inaugurate at the Saudi Consulting House tomorrow a seminar on boosting productivity of food industries in the Kingdom, it was announced here today.

It is the first time that a seminar of this type is being organized to promote the concept of productivity in the farm sector in conjunction with renowned consultants like Arthur D. Little International Inc., Booth Smith Associates an W.S. Atkins and Associates. Praising the idea behind the seminar, Turki Faisal Al Rasheed , told " Arab News" that it might be a good idea to consider transferring part of the wheat subsidies to other crops like maize, barley, corn, peanuts and soyabean where cultivation has to be undertaken with a low level of subsidies. He said that since the Kingdom was already production an extra three million tons of wheat, it made sense to whittle down wheat subsidies and divert the same to other crops which had become unrenumerative on this score.

Al Rasheed suggested that the Grain Silos Flour Mills Organizaion (GSFMO) of the Ministry of Commerce should set up a mechanism that allowed banks to endorse the promissory note. This, he said, would help solve credit flow problems for the farmers who now have to depend on their own resourcecs.