Middle East: Middle East Agriculture Profile

Middle East Agriculture Profile

In the Middle East, agriculture is the largest contributor to the Gross Domestic Product and foreign exchange, and is the second largest employer. Yet despite its economic importance it is largely overlooked in the development of new technologies and in the allocation of trained human resources. The Middle East produces less than half of the food and agro-industrial products it consumes. Agriculture in the Middle East focuses on new ways to improve food production, the challenges of a largely arid land, and managing limited agricultural resources.

Large areas of the geopolitically vital Middle East are immensely rich in natural resources. One country alone, Saudi Arabia, possesses nearly one-fourth of the world’s total oil reserves.

Yet most Middle Eastern countries are highly dependent on food from abroad. With the exception of Israel, agriculture in the region remains undeveloped. This results in an enormous cost. The region’s food import bill in 1984 came to $22.5 billion. Dr. Edouard Saouma, Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, in his Foreword to this volume, states that the Middle East produces less than half of its food requirements.