RIYADH, 29 October — Minister of Agriculture and Water Dr. Abdullah Al-Muammar has said that there is no shift in the government’s policy of extending assistance to Saudi farmers.
“Nothing has been changed. The Saudi Agriculture Bank has been giving loans to the needy farmers,” the minister said while inaugurating an international agriculture exhibition here yesterday.
The Saudi government has provided more than SR28 billion in interest-free loans to the farmers so far. Not only this, the government has also distributed more than 2.7 million hectares of land free of charge among farmers and investors.
The total farmers’ subsidies have amounted to over SR11 billion. The Saudi Agriculture Bank has been directly involved in more than 3,100 agriculture projects in the country.
The five-day agricultural expo, organized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Water, has attracted some 300 local and international companies.
Leading companies like Arabian Auto Agency Co., Abu Dawood Trading, Al-Jouf Agriculture Co., Al-Marai, Atx Aquasub Engineering, Termotecnia Pericoli, Saudi Fisheries, Dalsem Horticultural BV, Holland Genetics, Jansen Poultry, Stork PMT and Systemate Numafa BV are featuring a range of innovative products and services at the expo.
Dr. Muammar said Saudi Arabia will renew a technical cooperation agreement with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for another five years.
“A decision has been made by the Saudi government to renew the technical agreement with the FAO for the next five years. On my visit to Rome to attend the FAO’s biennial meeting, I am going to sign the new agreement,” said the minister, who will leave for Italy next week heading the Saudi delegation to the Nov. 5 meeting.
The renewal of the accord will ensure extensive technical cooperation between Saudi Arabia and this UN agency in the fields of agriculture, fishery, research, animal health and quarantine.
The last five-year Saudi-FAO technical accord was signed in October 1996, and it expires this month.
This UN agency was founded in 1945 and regular food summits and biennial meetings are held at its Rome headquarters since 1951. Saudi Arabia, which has extended SR191 million in contributions to this UN agency so far, is a member of the FAO.
Asked about the postponement of the UN World Food Summit, which was to be organized on the sidelines of the FAO meeting, the minister said that the summit, which seeks to tackle issues of hunger and poverty, has been postponed until next summer. However, he said that the Kingdom will participate in the forthcoming UN World Food Summit.
Italy was under intense pressure to shift the venue of the summit or to postpone it because of the fears that violence would disrupt it, as happened during the last Group of Eight summit in Genoa.
