Farming in Saudi Arabia | Central Pivot Irrigation system | Kiftat

Satellite image of farming in Saudi Arabia

Farming in Saudi Arabia, The country which is 95%(almost total)scorching hot desert and had not enough resources. Saudi Arabia is an arid country it has no rivers or lake and most of its vast landmass is just sand. Although Saudi Arabia is one of those countries which have no permanent rivers and receive only four inches of annual rainfall. Also did you know in 1990s Saudi Arabia was largest wheat exporters in the world. Also Saudi Arabia exported some of the most expensive wheat in the world. You are thinking that how they can farms in their deserted area? Don't worry we are discuss about this, just scroll and read down below.

Where the water come from in Saudi Arabia?

Water is a renewable resource and Agriculture needs good amount of water for farming and we know water is get expensive day by day, So how they get enough water for farming? Basically many thousands of years ago, the climate was different then and the Arabian peninsula received a much more rainfall than today. This water accumulated in underground aquifers that cannot be replenished, then this groundwater is called fossil water. During the 1980s the government began a program of subsidies that paid local farmers to grow crops. The farmers pumped huge quantities of fossil water and by the early 2000s it was estimated that much of it had been depleted.

As Saudi Arabia installed many machine for buried fossil fuels, they also put a machine for water too to remove water (fossil water) from the deep ground about 1 kilometres.

To not get much water wasted, they have put another method, so that not much water is wasted.

Central Pivot Irrigation

The central pivot irrigation method or technique recognised as one of the most effective methods to improve water distribution to farm fields. This system was created by a farmer named Frank Zyback from Colorado.

Overview of a farming system in Saudi Arabia

The center pivots is irrigated with a circular pattern around the central pivot point. These pivot are capable of sprinkler water, fertilizers and herbicides. This system covers miles of land. This versatility enhances the efficiency of irrigation practices by using a single piece of equipment to perform several tasks. This geographical system is not need gallons of water and it's not need much investment.

You can see this image below, by seeing this image you got a idea of how these machinery works.

Machines used in Central Pivot Irrigation system

These irrigation systems increases yields on less water waste as compared to other irrigation system that wasted much water to irrigate like flood irrigation.

The farmers can also control the irrigation system by remote.

Saudi Arabia has been building central pivot irrigation system from 50 years from now. Saudi Arabia has a huge agricultural projects for the perspective in 1961 it had 11400 square kilometres of arable land comprising 0.5 percent of the country and in 2016 it has almost 35000 square kilometres which is the triple the amount of fertile land as compared to 60 years ago. In the past 60 years Saudi Arabia have transformed 24000 square kilometres of desert in fertile land into fertile soil and become a farmland.