Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

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of surplus population in urban centers while rural areas continue to lose its agriculturalists.
The state perceived the pursuance of agricultural self-sufficiency as a viable national goal to
minimize national dependence on food imports.
In his national address to the Saudi people in 1985, King Fahad A1 Saud highlighted
the government's approach to the development of the Saudi Arabia's various regions. He
stated that "Our goals are to provide all citizens, whether in villages, cities, or distant areas
the same [public] services...the goals of the Kingdom are those of sustaining the pillars of
Allah's [Islamic] shariy'ah and the implementation of it in all aspects, then to use all
resources that Allah has bestowed on us and exert our utmost efforts to attain the
comprehensive development and the rise of the standard of living." 47 Rural areas were
bestowed with considerable national funds in the form of subsidies and social services to
fanners, including housing loans, similar to hose for urban centers.
This commitment was translated in the continuing improvements in rural services
including increase in the number and quality of public schools in urban and rural areas at an
accelerating pace. 48 However, while these efforts were meant to promote agriculture and
to achieve balanced regional growth, their overall effectiveness is questionable.
Traditionally, nomads' children begin tending the livestock in their early years and
schooling attracts them away from this endeavor, thus causing the departure from
traditional habitation, which hitherto supplied meat and dairy products to towns' people.
The government's education policy also provided stipends for students and free education
at the college level. This encouraged young ruralists and bedouins alike to seek formal
education and eventually to move either to the growing service sectors or to urban areas, in
both cases the farming industry suffers a loss.
In 1963, some 475,000, or 72 percent, of the economically active nationals were
designated 'agricultural workers and bedouin'. In 1975,52 percent of the national work
force was involved in 'agriculture and fishing'. By 1986, the proportion of Saudi nationals
working in agriculture dropped to 11 percent of the total Saudi labor force. 49 This is due to
the country's dependence on foreign expatriate labor to meet the expanding needs of the
modem economy, in general, and agriculture, in particular. However, though Saudis,
particularly the young, have increasingly abandoned agricultural activity, city-ward
migration among Saudis has been alleviated, thanks to the government's policies and