From hunger to food security
Iman Hammoud Al-Shammari
1909 Let us return to this date specifically, to the year in which hunger swept through the land of Najd due to lack of rain, becoming a barren, barren land due to drought, where survivors shared stories about that difficult crisis, and how the streets were filled with the bodies of the dead due to severe hunger, and people were forced to eat animals, locusts and other things to save themselves and stay alive, that famine that caused a sharp decline in food security, so King Abdulaziz, may God forgive him, intervened and worked to establish agricultural projects in order to solve the problem. Crisis and provision of agricultural crops.
Since that date, the Kingdom has been in continuous development to raise the quality of the environmental system, as food security is one of the most important provisions of Vision 2030. The Kingdom is working to confront climate challenges, protect the environment, and contribute to increasing productivity, through several initiatives and plans launched to develop vital resources, improve the efficiency of using natural resources and ensure their sustainability, and achieve food security by strengthening water sources, raising the degree of utilization of treated water from sewage, increasing the production capacity of desalinated water, and developing vegetation, by launching 59 initiatives to support agricultural crops, in addition to addressing For logging, combating desertification, setting fines for poaching and protecting wildlife.
The Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture is making huge efforts, using several technologies, such as hydroponics, “greenhouses”, and others… in addition to “smart agriculture” using artificial intelligence… a package of modern technologies that offer promising solutions to improve agricultural production, reduce water consumption, and increase productivity, as the desert environment is no longer an obstacle to it.
The Saudi Food Security Authority also launched several strategies to diagnose and analyze the current situation, as well as an early warning system, and the Ministry of Agriculture implemented the first phase of two initiatives to plant 45 million fruit trees on agricultural terraces, and plant 4 million lemon trees by 2030, within the Saudi Green Initiative.
Joining efforts demonstrated the Kingdom’s steadfastness and the stability of the Saudi market in crises, such as the Corona pandemic, and also during the war between Russia and Ukraine. That stability would catapult the Kingdom to achieve the highest levels in the international food security index, and crown the success of the Kingdom’s plans to achieve self-sufficiency.
