He
said Saudi Arabia should do everything possible to help rural masses
that depend on agriculture. Water scarcity is one of the limiting
factors to local food production. To overcome this the government
should build dams to tap the renewable water so that small stake
farmers in rural areas get water for irrigation.
According to
Al-Rasheed, the Kingdom gets six to eight million cubic meters of
rainwater yearly. “Our strategy should be to make optimum use of
whatever little rainwater we get,” he said here on the sidelines of the
just-concluded Jeddah Economic Forum in which he was one of the
panelists.
Al-Rasheed said the secret behind China’s success was
its farm policy of the 1990s. It invested with small farmers and gave
them a free hand.
“That became the engine of growth for the country,” he said.
He
said agriculture is one of the most effective tools to promote growth
and alleviate poverty. Therefore, Saudi Arabia must have a base of
agriculture. “We must use the highly genetically modified seeds. We
must heavily depend on the new technologies of the most optimum water
management,” he said.
Al-Rasheed said it was the corporate social
responsibility of the government to make distribution of wealth
throughout the Kingdom. It should support the farmers of Taif to grow
roses and guarantee their produce is bought. Similarly, farmers in
Jazan and Asir and other provinces should also be supported in all
possible ways.
The Ministry of Water and Electricity has formed
an autonomous body called the National Water Company (NWC) with the
mandate to oversee wastewater management. Al-Rasheed said the treated
water was not going to help farmers in rural areas. “It will only
supply water to the suburbs of major cities,” he added.
After the
food crisis of 2008, Saudi Arabia, like many other countries in the
Middle East, went to countries in Asia and Africa to lease farmland.
Al-Rasheed said instead of leasing the land Saudi Arabia should
purchase it. According to him, there was a big difference between the
two options. “When you buy a land you own it. It’s tradable. But if you
lease a land it has no value. In the book value it is called leased
land. It does not appreciate,” he said.
Al-Rasheed had a solution
to the social and political implications the land buying deal may have
in the host country. He said the deal should be on the basis of
partnership between the private sectors of Saudi Arabia and the host
country. “A joint venture company should be formed with Saudi side
keeping 60 percent while the rest of the share may be floated in the
market so that the public of the host country has an interest in it.”
The role of the two governments should be limited to official work like
in any other joint venture, he added.
Commenting on the
reservations many people have about the genetically modified seeds, he
said: “We don’t have choices. People were against this when there was
abundance of food. Now when there is a shortage you have to live with
it.” According to him, agriculture was facing worldwide neglect. He
cited the World Bank whose lending to agricultural projects in 1980 was
25 percent of its budget. In 2000 the number went down to 10 percent.
Moreover, the bank has lost almost half of its technical staff in the
area of agriculture development. His list of neglect was long. Punjab
region, the most fertile land shared by India and Pakistan, he said,
has not seen development or investment in new farm technology for the
last 30 years. Worse, the dams in the region have not been upgraded
during the period. The Philippines has lost its rice production because
of continued apathy. Thailand and Vietnam claimed to have enough food
but they were exposed when the food riots erupted.
