Domestic Food Production and Consumption in Saudi Arabia: Status Quo and Future Prospects

Nourished communities are recognizedProspects as having a productive and sustainable agricultural sectorAgricultural sector. The Saudi governmentGovernment has shown great concern for food production and availabilityAvailability, which is reflected in the Saudi Arabia Vision 2030 which focuses on both food availabilityFood availability and consumptionConsumption. The overall objective of this chapter is to evaluate the current and potential statusDomestic of domestic food productionDomestic production and consumption, as well as forecast patterns and changes in the future. In this chapter, time series secondary data and information gathered by the Food and AgricultureAgriculture Organization (FAO) were used. The data covers crop and animal productsAnimal product from 1961 to 2021, as well as food supplyFood supply information from 2010 to 2020. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as averages, graphs, and trend lines. The results revealed that 43% of the land is used for fruit cultivation, 38% for cereals, and 18% for vegetables. The passage of time has had a significant effect on cultivated land and cropping patterns, which have changed significantly due to issues with water and natural resources. While the land and production for cerealCereals crops are decreasing, they are increasing for vegetablesVegetable. The increase in vegetable production is higher than the increase in land, attributable to advanced production technologiesTechnologies and efficient resource usage. Food supplyFood supply showed changes over time, with varying self-sufficiencySelf-sufficiency rates for vegetableVegetable crops ranging from 4 to 118% and fruitsFruit from 60 to 118%. For animal productsAnimal product, it ranged between 43% for red meatMeat and 121% for milkMilk. We conclude that despite the unfavorable climateClimate and natural resource constraints to food production, efforts have been made to enhance production and food security regarding food availabilityFood availability in Saudi Arabia.