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A GROWTH MARKET
Breaking farming records in a desert Kingdom may appear impossible, but Saudi's booming agricultural business has the world's largest dairy farm and produces almost three times more wheat per 100 acres than America.
 A long-term plan for the development of agriculture in Saudi Arabia is to be unveiled soon by the Riyadh government. The Kingdom may be mostly desert and its economy firmly based upon oil production, but the significance of the agriculture sector is not being under estimated.
It plays an important role in minimizing the overpopulation of the Kingdom's towns and cities and at the same time provides jobs for a million Saudis.
A huge investment has been made in the industry over the years and, as a result, the Kingdom is self-sufficient in wheat and dairy products. Indeed, according to the Guinness Book of Records, it has the largest integrated dairy farm in the world, a 13.5 square mile complex in the al-Sahba Valley, 60 miles south of Riyadh.
One of the sector's most supportive companies is the Al Asmida Saudi United Fertilizer Company which has been supplying Saudi farms with agrochemicals, speciality fertilizers and vegetable and forage crop seeds for nearly 30 years. It also supplies irrigation systems and public-health products and is the representative in the Kingdom of leading American, Australian, French and Italian agricultural suppliers.
 "Initially we specialized in niches, concentrating on technology and fertilizers that were not being produced by SABIC (the Kingdom's giant industrial conglomerate)," says Samir Kabbani, the managing director. "We diversified as well. We noticed that water was an issue and so we decided to go into water technology." Al Asmida is constantly on the alert for new partnerships and new technology from abroad.
Mr. Kabbani plays an active role in promoting better understanding of the agriculture sector. As members of a desert society, Saudis are inclined to question whether the amount of water required to grow produce is the best use for this precious and limited resource.
Mr. Kabbani heads a public relations campaign for the sector, lobbying hard and writing a regular newspaper column in which he spells out the benefits of the industry.
He is consulted by the ministry of agriculture on the long-term prospects for agriculture and actively participates with the minister and the chambers of commerce in promoting partnerships and investments and putting the case for agriculture across to the public.
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