Despite the scarcity of water in Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom has made big strides in the agricultural sector.
The Saudi government has been encouraging farmers and has been providing them with incentives, including soft interest-free loans.
The Kingdom has had great success in wheat production and for some years now it has been exporting wheat rather than importing it.
From 1994 to 2004, the production of grains declined from 4.86 million tons to 2.952 million tons, while the production of fruit and vegetables increased.
In 2003, the area cultivated with grains amounted to 699,221 hectares, while the area allocated for production of grains and fodders, up to the end of 2003, amounted to about 700,000 hectares. The area allocated for production of vegetables in the same year exceeded 114,000 hectares.
In the same year, the Kingdom produced about 2.2 million tons of fresh vegetables, notably 424,000 tons of tomatoes; 318,000 tons of potatoes; 233,000 tons of muskmelon and 283,000 tons of watermelon.
In 2003, the Kingdom's production of fruits exceeded 1.33 million tons. They were cultivated on an area of about 198,000 hectares, while the production of dates amounted to 884,000 tons. They were cultivated on an area of about 142,000 hectares.
As regards poultry production in 2003, the Kingdom produced 468,000 tons of chickens and 2,498 million eggs.
In the same year, the number of cows increased to 333,000 heads, sheep to 16.124 million heads, and camels to 824,000 heads.
More than 1.2 million tons of milk and 165,000 tons of red meat was available in the Kingdom in the same year.
