RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has achieved a firm grip on food security, with its open-field vegetable production touching 983,000 tons in 2021 compared to 904,000 tons in 2020, according to the latest data released by the General Authority for Statistics.
The report released by GASTAT noted that the area of open fields cultivated with vegetables amounted to more than 404,000 dunums in 2021, compared to 384,000 dunums in the previous year. A dunum is equivalent to 1,000 sq. meters.
Ensuring food security has been one of the key goals outlined in Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, as the oil-dependent Kingdom is exploring economic diversification.
According to the GASTAT report, Makkah came first among administrative regions in terms of area cultivated with summer vegetables, reaching 186,000 dunums and producing over 467,000 tons.
Moreover, watermelon cultivation was the largest among summer crops, reaching 237,000 dunums and producing 610,000 tons, of which 599,000 tons were sold at SR1.1 billion ($290 million).
The GASTAT report, however, revealed that overall grains produced in Saudi Arabia were 840,000 tons in 2021, down 29 percent from 1.19 million tons in 2020.
The report added that grain cultivation was 1.9 million dunums in 2021.
Jazan ranked first among administrative regions in terms of area cultivated with grain, accounting for 498,000 dunums.
Wheat ranked first among cultivated grains, covering 914,000 dunums and producing 538,000 tons. Wheat sales in 2021 touched SR716 million.
The report added that the total number of date palm trees in the Kingdom reached nearly 36 million in 2021. Out of this, fruitful date palms or the female Phoenix dactylifera variants stood at 28 million in 2021, up 3.70 percent compared to 27 million in 2020.
In 2021, Saudi Arabia’s overall quantity of date production reached 1.6 million tons, a slight uptick compared to 1.58 million tons in the previous year.
Saudi Arabia has implemented various programs to ensure the Kingdom’s food security over the past few years.
In July, the Ministry of Environment, Water, and Agriculture inked two memorandums of understanding with the Agricultural Development Fund to increase the efficiency of rural farms in the Kingdom.
The deal is also expected to encourage entrepreneurs to exploit investment opportunities in the agricultural sector and provide support and finance for rural farms.
