Transforming Desert into an Agriculture Oasis, Saudi Arabia

How Saudi Arabia is turning its huge desert into arable land

Saudi Arabia has transformed large desert areas into farmland using advanced technologies. The country has implemented major irrigation projects and large-scale mechanization to add previously barren areas to the stock of cultivatable land. 

One of the main strategies that Saudi Arabia has adopted to overcome the water scarcity problem is the use of desalinated seawater for irrigation. Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest producer of desalinated water, with a capacity of over 5 million cubic meters per day. Desalination plants are located along the coastlines of the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf, and supply water to various agricultural projects in the inland regions. For example, the Al-Jouf Agricultural Development Company uses desalinated water to grow wheat, barley, alfalfa, corn, and fruits on more than 62,000 hectares of land in the northern part of the country.

Another strategy that Saudi Arabia has employed to enhance its agricultural productivity is the use of controlled environment agriculture (CEA). CEA is a technology-based approach that allows farmers to grow crops in greenhouses or other structures that regulate temperature, humidity, light, and carbon dioxide levels. CEA can increase crop yields, reduce water and fertilizer use, protect plants from pests and diseases, and extend the growing season. Saudi Arabia has invested in several CEA projects, such as the National Agricultural Development Company (NADEC), which operates more than 200 greenhouses that produce tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and herbs. 

Saudi Arabia has also implemented facilities to treat urban and industrial runoff for agricultural irrigation. These efforts have helped transform vast tracts of the desert into fertile farmland. 

Saudi Arabia has also enlisted the help of Van der Hoeven, a Dutch horticultural company, to build a horticulture area in the kingdom. The company creates, builds, and operates sustainable greenhouse projects to grow year-round crops even in countries with the most extreme climates. 

Additionally, the Saudi Green Initiative aims to rehabilitate 40 million hectares of land and restore the natural greenery, with the target of planting 10 billion trees,” says Saule Mussurova, an academic researcher in Plant Science at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). 

The project addresses this target by unifying water availability, climate, topography, soil moisture, and plant habitats.  A comprehensive list of vegetation and tried-and-true planting methods is compiled to ensure optimum and sustainable ecological succession. The approach is to create a landscape strategy considering global, regional, local, rural, and urban contexts.

As recently as 1986, there was little to no agricultural activity in the Wadi As-Sirhan Basin. But over the past 26 years, agricultural fields have been steadily developed, largely as a result of the investment of oil industry revenues by the Saudi government. Crops grown in the area include fruits, vegetables, and wheat.

The fields are irrigated by water pumped from underground aquifers. That water is distributed in rotation about a center point within a circular field—a technique known as center-pivot agriculture. The approach affords certain benefits compared to traditional surface irrigation, such as better control of water and fertilizer use. This so-called “precision agriculture” is particularly important in regions subject to high water loss due to evaporation. By better controlling the amount and timing of water application, evaporative losses can be minimized.