In a move to discourage the cultivation of water-intensive wheat crops, Saudi government will altogether stop buying wheat from local farmers by 2016, said Dr. Fahd Bin Abdulrahman Balghunaim, Minister of Agriculture. Saudi Arabia in 2008 abandoned its plan to achieve self-sufficiency in wheat and aimed to be 100 percent reliant on imports by 2016. Balghunaim was speaking to reporters Tuesday after inaugurating the 30th anniversary ceremony of Saudi Agriculture show organized by Riyadh Exhibition Company (REC). He also reiterated what Ibrahim Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Assaf, Minister of Finance, said some two years ago that the Council of Ministers has approved a SR3 billion agricultural investments company to achieve food security in the Kingdom. He said the proposed Saudi Company for Agricultural Investment and Animal Production (SCAIAP), the new joint-stock company, will be fully owned by the General Investment Fund (GIF). Balghunaim said water was the most pressing issue that the Agriculture Ministry is trying to address. “We are trying our best to reach all parties in the agriculture sector and convince them (farmers) that if they do not conserve water they would be the first to be hurt. So, the government has offered a lot of incentives to the farmers in order to shift from flood irrigation to drip irrigation system,” said Balghunaim. He said the government is willing to pay up to 70 percent of the cost of irrigation system that conserves water. “We are asking farmers to take advantage of the government's subsidies and incentives in order to adopt the irrigation system that conserves water,” he said. He said drip irrigation system will work efficiently for every crop, except the wheat. Wheat crop consumes a lot of water and the Saudi government wants to stop its cultivation altogether, he added. __
