Agro growth gets a push

April 07, 2010

RIYADH: Agriculture Minister Fahd Balghunaim said on Tuesday that his ministry is busy giving final touches to a national strategic plan to develop the Kingdom’s agriculture sector.

Inaugurating a workshop on greenhouses organized by the Ministry of Agriculture under the title of “Towards Food and Water Security,” the minister said the plan is soon to be implemented and will address issues in the agricultural sector. He added that it would also help farmers boost cultivation.

Balghunaim indicated that the workshop was within the framework of the ministry’s efforts to achieve food security. The workshop, he said, was being held as a follow-up to the establishment of a sustainable research center in cooperation with the King Saud University on the initiative of the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources.

He added that people should value his ministry’s efforts in light of the Kingdom’s climate, soil and water resources. “This is a country with little rain and no natural rivers,” he said, adding that there is a strong need to balance between the availability of water resources and food security.

He noted that the ministry has been encouraging the use of modern irrigation methods in preference to traditional irrigation. He added that the ministry encourages agricultural activities that depend on less water in areas such as poultry, fisheries and greenhouses.

He also said that the ministry will establish an Agricultural Information Center to inform farmers about fertile lands, availability of water, the nature of soil and anticipated yields. He also noted that the Agricultural Development Fund headed by the minister has allocated SR1 billion for 280 projects in greenhouses in the Kingdom. He also said that greenhouses save nearly 90 percent of water spent on conventional methods of cultivation.

Balghunaim later opened an exhibition organized on the sidelines of the workshop. Several agricultural establishments and companies participated in the exhibition.

Abdullah Al-Obaid, undersecretary for research and agricultural development at the Ministry of Agriculture, underlined the problems facing the agricultural sector, adding that they include scarcity of water resources, high cost of production and lack of marketing strategies.

The area of vegetable cultivation has increased from 191 to 200 hectares increasing production from 130,000 to 740,000 tons. The Kingdom recently launched seven new initiatives for sustainable development in the agricultural sector.

They included the establishment of a National Information Center for Agriculture, rationalization of water use in irrigation, establishment of one or more bodies for handling and marketing vegetables and fruits, cooperative insurance for the animal sector, dates marketing, a company for breeding livestock, and the establishment of an entity for marketing fish and shrimps both in and out of the Kingdom.

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