Agriculture in Saudi Arabia

Agriculture in Saudi Arabia is focused on the export of dates, dairy products, eggs, fish, poultry, fruits, vegetables, and flowers to markets around the world after achieving self-sufficiency in the production of such products.^[1] The government of Saudi Arabia is heavily involved in the agriculture industry and subsidizing corporate farming and the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture^[2] is primarily responsible for agricultural policy. In the private sector, farmers receive long-term interest-free government loans and low-cost water, fuel, electricity, and duty-free imports of raw materials and machinery.

Although Saudi Arabia is widely thought of as a desert, it has regions suitable for agriculture. The country receives an average of 100mm of rain every winter except in the southern part of the country.^[3] The government has converted large areas of desert into agricultural fields.^[1] Major irrigation projects and large-scale mechanization has added previously barren areas to the stock of cultivatable land.^[4]

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has cautioned that overdeveloping the agrosystem in the desert could interfere in the ecosystem of the desert. ^[3]