Agricultural GDP put at SR44 billion
Arab News
19 September 2010


RIYADH: Saudi Arabia's gross domestic agricultural product reached SR44 billion in 2009, an official report carried by the Saudi Press Agency said on Saturday.

"The agriculture sector's contribution to the non-oil sector increased to 6.6 percent and to the gross domestic product 2.3 percent," the report said.

The report highlighted the remarkable progress achieved by Saudi Arabia in the agriculture sector, despite the presence of a huge area of deserts.

Since its inception in 1963, the Agricultural Development Fund gave 433,000 loans worth SR41.7 billion to farmers to purchase equipment, seeds and fertilizers.

"The fund also provided financial assistance valued at SR13.1 billion for various agricultural activities until 2009," the report said.

Although the Kingdom's production of grains declined from 4.86 million tons in 1994 to 1.6 million tons in 2009, its vegetable output rose considerably.

The total area where grains have been cultivated reached 328,725 hectares by 2009, the report said, adding that the number of livestock reached 14.2 million heads including 435,000 cows, 9.095 million heads of sheep and 810,000 camels.

The Kingdom currently produces more than 1.51 billion liters of dairy products, 760,000 tons of red meat, 508,000 tons of poultry and 96,000 tons of fish annually, the report pointed out.

The number of workers in the agriculture sector rose to 511,000 in 2009 and in the fisheries sector 28,000. There are 12,000 shipping boats in the country.

By P.K. ABDUL GHAFOUR

© Arab News 2010

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