An Insight into the Stability of Major Agro-Food Resources in Saudi Arabia

Agricultural practicesPractices in the Saudi Arabia (KSA) encounter numerousAgro-food resources limitations, notably; among them are scarcity of water, insufficient skilled technical workers, saline water and soil, in addition to the particular increasing desalination expenses. Among all that, the Kingdom authorities along with the academics have discovered that the self-sufficiency plan set earlier was in fact leading to significant destruction of the KSA’s rare groundwaterGroundwater resourcesResources. Thus, this chapter is oriented to assess the fluctuationFluctuation in major-agricultural-scheme’s cultivated areasCultivated area over different parts of the Kingdom using remote sensingRemote sensing techniques. Six agricultural areas representing the most productive regionsProductive regions in the Kingdom were identified; namely, Riyadh, Al-Qassim, Haiel, Al-Jouf, Tabuk, and Eastern Province, then from which pilot study areasPilot study areas in each region were selected for studying and analysisAnalysis any potential change in the agricultural area during the past 30 years (1990–2020). Based on the investigated pilot areas, the overall change in the cultivated lands, corresponding to their respective surface cover type as well as the agricultural activityAgricultural activities practiced, has been confirmed as noticeable degradationDegradation in most of the Kingdom’s regions, while a few regions denoted agricultural developmentAgricultural development. It was also inferred from the decadal change that the most recent decade (2010–2020) has witnessed the highest reduction in the vegetation coverVegetation cover, in which 53% of the agricultural lands all over the regions have turned into bare soilsBare soil. This percentage reflects the effect of the government’sGovernment legislation and regulation towards banning irrigationIrrigation water over-use for better resources management.