Saudi Team Arabias
Project Proposal: Water Conservation Education Program By: Conrad Arnzen & Danielle Rohde Agriculture Education 306 International Agriculture Instructor: Dr. Robert Haggerty May 12, 2004
Executive Summary
Saudi Arabias agriculture has changed drastically in the past three decades going from producing very little wheat to becoming the worlds fifth leading producer in the early 1990s. This expansion was brought about by a major push from the government by giving the farmers subsidies to put in irrigation systems to provide water for their crops. This agriculture expansion has creating a huge water crisis. The aquifer levels are being depleted at an extremely fast rate to where they could possibly be out of water in 25-30 years. To combat this problem we propose drastic water conservation techniques. We would like to see wheat production to go way down because of the massive amount of water that it requires and would like to see the increase of production in the greenhouse areas as well as in date-palm production. To implement these water conservation techniques we plan to put on seminars, workshops, and on farm demonstrations to overcome the communication barrier to where the farmers could understand by using hands on techniques. We would also distribute literature, give presentations in university classes, and implement test plots. We feel all these activities will help the Saudi people accept our coming there and trying to help them. The last thing we want to do is have them feel that we are pressuring them into doing something that they may not want to do. The expected outcome would be that Saudi Arabian farmers will have a better understanding of use of conservation methods and techniques. We would also hope to better the relationships between the United States and Saudi Arabia. We would expect to gain cultural knowledge and also agricultural techniques from Saudi Arabian farmers.
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We feel that the sooner the project gets started the better because there is little time to waste however we dont want to rush in and make the Saudi farmers uneasy with our presence. We would hope to have the initial implementation plan in full effect 5 year after the start date. The start date would be as soon as adequate resources and research could be compiled. After the implementation process the follow up could be infinitely long because of research, and unforeseen problems that will have to be overcome. As long as there is agriculture being produced there then there will probably be water problems. We plan to work with several universities in Saudi Arabia and several universities in the United States along with the Ministry of Water and Electricity. We expect this project to cost roughly around $40 million once the original 5 year implementation is over with.
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Saudi is having a major problem
For Saudi Arabia, becoming a dominant powerhouse has been priority for the last three decades, especially in the last two. Saudi has tired of being known for only petroleum products, particularly its oil exports. Oil of course, is the main dollar source for Saudi. But, despite generous dollars generated by this export, Saudi has to import most of its food goods due to climate and soil conditions. In its search of powerhouse status and being more self efficient, the country has taken to producing non-drought friendly crops in great amounts, wheat being one of the crops to sky rocket in production. Instead of purely importing wheat and being satisfied with producing specialty crops, Saudi began growing acres upon acres of its own wheat supply, so much, it actually had to be piled in the deserts because it was neither being consumed or sold quickly enough. The idea or concept of being more efficient is a good one and cannot be judged harshly or considered a bad idea. However, Saudis strive to be more independent and free of high import numbers, actually has caused them to become MORE dependent on others. By producing such high quantities of wheat, Saudi has been gradually draining itself dry of its own water supply-which is the serious problem being addressed within following pages. Water is a serious issue- its needed for basic survival of every living organism. In most cases, when a source runs dry, its dry for life, or thousands of years. According to Sustaining Water, Population and the Future of Renewable Water Supplies, non-renewable water is water in aquifers and other natural reservoirs that are not recharged, or are recharged so slowly that significant withdrawals will cause
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depletion. This quote is highly relevant-especially due to the fact that most of Saudis water supply is aquifer retrieved, therefore, non-renewable. Once its gone, its gone.
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Problem Solution Proposal
Conrad Arnzen and I have developed a water problem solution proposal to aid in this water crisis before it is too late to alleviate the above mentioned problem before water sources are completely depleted. We dont want to TELL the Saudi producers how to produce, or tell the government how to operate or handle their countrys water issue. However, what we would like to do, is work one on one with producers, learn how they produce their crops and how they use water, work one on one with Saudi university educators learning how they teach and the different view on agriculture production, we would like to coordinate a program where U.S. water conservation educators and crop production educators work with Saudis university educators to learn from each other. Basically, we want to help Saudi help herself. Conserve water, help her people to feel secure they will be ok in years to come and the country will not be sacrificed because of poor, or lack of, water resource management. We believe we have a lot to offer each other and can serve as great educators to one another and along the way, The U.S. can teach Saudi all IT knows of water conservation. By working one on one with each other, political fences will be mended. U.S. educators will gain vast knowledge about Saudi culture and communications and water ultimately will be saved and production can continue, perhaps just with different crops and different methods of irrigation.
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Basically, by implementing such a proposal a massive commitment is being taken on. But, if one weighs the pros and cons of such a commitment, the benefits and pros out weight the costs and cons. Public relations will be stronger amongst the two countries, our knowledge will increase, the Saudi knowledge data base will be enhanced, water will be saved, and by water saving, the country will be spared in the long run.
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Implementation of our Proposal
As we stated in our country profile Saudi Arabia is depleting their water levels because of an extensive push in the agriculture sector that is requiring vast amounts of water for irrigation purposes. As much as 90% of the total water being consumed in the kingdom was going towards agriculture purposes in the early 1990s (Saudi Arabia Running out of water). We feel that implementation of our proposal will be a very difficult project to complete, but with adequate recourses, funds and team work, it will be accomplished and the results will be overwhelming for the team members working on the project and the Saudi people. We plan on doing this by implementing several activities that will educate the Saudi people in water conservation. To initiate conservation education, we plan on working with larger scale farms by helping them implement conservation techniques and to offer alternative agricultural production crops that would grow in the dry, Saudi Arabian environment yet also return constant revenue to the farmer. One crop that is currently being pushed that we wish to further push is date palm production. The country is the leading producer of dates with 18.2 million date palms that produce an estimated 600 million tons of dates (Natural History of the Date Palm Phoenix dactylifera). In recent years, Saudi Arabia has drastically increased the production of dates partially because of the loss of subsidies to wheat production (Araji). Dates do very well in dry climates and Saudi Arabia has the perfect climate for them to grow in. Date production will help water conservation because they require far less water than wheat and irrigation techniques for date palms
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are much more efficient than wheat irrigation techniques. It is possible to use drip irrigation sprinklers with date palms to where almost none to little water evaporation takes place. The conventional center pivot irrigation method primarily used in wheat production enables vast amounts of water to evaporate do to small water mists being sprayed from the sprinklers. We hope that after our plan has been implemented the sales of date palms will go from 600 million tons to 800-900 million This tons. will provide financial relief from the loss of income from decreased wheat production. I recently interviewed Dr. Jim Araji, who is an agricultural economics professor at the University of Idaho and grew up in the Middle East, about Saudi Arabia and their water problems. I asked him about irrigation methods of wheat crops and which types of irrigation systems would be best to conserve water and he said that they should stop producing wheat because the environment there is not suitable for cereal production (Araji). Initially we were considering implementing different irrigation methods to wheat now however we feel that it would be best if we just push production of alternative crops that dont require as much water. We hope that by helping the large farms and getting them off on the right foot towards conservation the smaller farms will follow their footsteps in the conservation effort. To do this we plan on hosting several activities that will get the Saudi people involved in the effort. These activities will include putting on workshops, seminars and on farm demonstrations. The workshops and seminars will hopefully be held at either universities or easily accessible public places that will accommodate large crowds. Also note: this is where U.S. and Saudi education of one anothers culture will come into play, we will learn more on HOW to communicate with the Saudi people through one on one
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interaction and also from our potential Saudi counterparts. They will reap the same benefits of our culture, by working one on one with us. We feel that with the on farm demonstrations the farmers will be able to see exactly what we will be doing. This will also help overcome the language barrier by having them not only see what we are doing but to understand the techniques and benefits from our conservation methods. One way for us to get support from the Saudi Arabian people is to follow what their government did in the 1980s when it was pushing wheat production. They showed TV commercials of beautiful wheat fields flowing with wind gusts. This allowed for public support of the subsidies to wheat because they could see the benefits of their tax money however the dark side was the drastic loss of water which was hidden from the public. We hope to show TV commercials of date palms and to effectively get the public to see the economical benefits from date production. We also want to get the point across that they require much less water so they will not deplete water levels. Also global television advertising could increase the sales of Saudi Arabian greenhouse vegetables and other agriculture related sales. One careful area that we must take great care in is not to culturally offend the Saudi Arabian people. We would make sure not to force our ideas and methods onto them if they did not wish for our help. We must make them understand that we are here to help them because by helping them we will gain vast amounts of knowledge which we can later use to help other countries in similar situation. We plan on achieving our conservation methods by working individually with the large farmers and also with the Ministry of Water and Electricity which is their governmental body that manages water conservation. Also several universities in Saudi
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Arabia will hopefully let us work with them so that we can both learn from each other and together will be able to combat the problem more efficiently. Our expected outcomes if the implementations are completed are that the Saudi Arabian farmers will have a better understanding of use of conservation methods and techniques. We would also hope to better the relationships between the United States and Saudi Arabia. We would expect to gain cultural knowledge and also agricultural techniques from Saudi Arabia. If their wheat production would go down it would lessen the world supply of wheat therefore driving up the wheat price which would help the American wheat farmer. Also if Saudi Arabia increases production of date palms and other green house vegetables such as cucumbers and tomatoes to name a couple, then those prices will decrease for the American consumer. Time is a major concern we have been focusing on considering that Saudi Arabian aquifers will be almost completely depleted in 20-25 years if the rate at which water is being used continues (Water Industries Market in Saudi Arabia). The sooner the project gets started the better because there is little time to waste however we dont want to rush in and make the Saudi farmers uneasy with our presence. We would hope to have the initial implementation plan in full effect five year after the start date. The start date would be as soon as adequate resources and research could be compiled. After the implementation process the follow up could be infinitely long because of research, and unforeseen problems that will have to be overcome. As long as there is agriculture being produced then there is a good probability that there be water problems. Initial costs for our proposal were very high because we were considering installing new irrigation systems for the Saudi Arabian Farmers that would help stop the
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loss of water. Now we have moved toward implementing different conservation techniques such as encouraging appropriate crops that ...