Blog post
Oil, water, food and data
More and more countries have decided to pursue an agricultural policy. Their reason for this is firstly, because they can afford it, and secondly, because they want to improve the food supply. Saudi Arabia is a classic example. Water is so scarce there that some people say it would be better to scale down the food production and to rely more on imports, citing the fact that, in recent decades, grain production and water consumption in Saudi Arabia have risen at the same rate. Others stress the geopolitical situation in the region and argue for less dependence on imports – another reason, incidentally, for stepping up investments in foreign agriculture. Inland farmers could be shown how to use water more efficiently than they do at present.
The ‘Kingdom of Saudi Arabia needs a rural policy. The oil has brought prosperity, but not for everyone – least of all for those who live in rural areas. Widespread poverty can trigger political unrest or worse.
There are enough reasons for instituting an agricultural policy. But before that policy can be developed and – more importantly – implemented, it is essential to have the right information: a register of contact information for businesses, basic statistical data on agricultural structures and processes (comparable to our own agricultural census), price information, and economic information on business operations.
The Agricultural Development Fund (a branch of the Saudi Ministry of Finance) has taken this challenge on board by setting up the Agricultural Information Centre (AIC). The LEI has been asked to share its knowledge and to help lead the centre and train the personnel. We have carried out similar projects in Central and Eastern Europe and are currently working on another such project in Turkey. We are utilising our skills to help our colleagues and customers to collect the necessary data as quickly as possible by applying modern European methods.
This is why LEI employees are regularly sent to Riyadh to work and why our Saudi colleagues come to The Hague for training sessions. Initially we were asked to set up a turnkey project, in line with local practices. But acting on the initiative of Dr George Beers, our local agent, we pushed for a strategic partnership with local ownership from day one.
In the process, we are assisting the policy of Saudisation which the government is pursuing. Many well-educated Saudis have no job at present. One of our tasks is to train the people with a more general education as agricultural information specialists. This ‘capacity building’ costs more time, but it does create a local knowledge infrastructure. The partnership, which is making excellent progress, is not being seriously hampered by climatic or cultural differences or by physical distance. We have moved on from compiling reports, and are now building institutions.
This is great news for LEI, but what about Dutch businesses? We are seeing opportunities on that front too. Our presence is generating ideas for new projects that could be interesting for Dutch entrepreneurs in a number of sectors, including the horticultural sector.
Projects like these will enable us to develop our knowledge and open new channels of cooperation in what the statisticians call MENA: the Middle East and North Africa, an important region. This region has more potential than China as an export market for many agricultural products. It is also coloured consistently red on the climate-change heat maps, so it will get even warmer and drier while the population continues to grow strongly. All of this is bound to have an impact on the relationship with EU neighbours in the coming decades.