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Problems Encountered

  1. Salinity

    Accumulation of salts in soil is one of the major permanent problems. Even at Ha’il Agricultural Development Company (HADCO) (Fig. 3) a large area of the Eastern Project (over 5,000 ha) had to be turned over to barley production due to relatively high water and subsequent soil salinity levels.


  2. Extreme temperature and environmental conditions

    - present irrigation practices provide ideal conditions for excessive leaching.


  3. Natural low nutrient soils

    (Shehata & Amin, 1997).


  4. Leaching of nutrients

    - present irrigation practices provide ideal conditions for excessive leaching.


  5. Land subsidence

    Land subsidence and ground fissures have been reported in several areas of Saudi Arabia. Under arid desert conditions the shortage of groundwater resources and the excessive pumping can cause a significant decline in freshwater levels. This may lead to an increase in soil salinity, a decrease in soil fertility, with the result of increasing the prospect of desertification. The ground subsidence, ground fissures and surface faults and damage to buildings in Tabah village in Ha’il Province have been directly associated with the excessive pumping of groundwater.


  6. High arsenic concentration in ground water.

  7. Little published information, particularly in refereed journals.



HADCO map

Fig. 3 MAP OF HADCO. APOLOGIES FOR PRINT QUALITY, BUT IS A COPY, OF A COPY, OF A BLUEPRINT. IT IS THE ONLY COPY IN EXISTENCE !!!!!!!!!!! Insufficient time to redraw. - EACH CIRCLE HAS A RADIUS OF 1km.


In addition the production of wheat and vast areas of concentrated agricultural development has brought about radical changes in the local ecological, environmental and climatic conditions.

This artificial change to the environment is likely to favour many of the serious diseases that attack cereals. Cultivation of imported high yielding varieties significantly increased production levels, however plant quarantine regulations in the Kingdom were inadequate and led to fears of the introduction of new pathogens and the establishment of new disease areas in the country. Little data is available regarding pests and diseases and the level of damage to crops. It was suspected that losses in Saudi Arabia were high. However the only information available dated back to 1969, when Puccinia graminis f.sp. tritici (black rust) caused significant damage on wheat, severe in most wheat growing regions, and in some plots of Dorma, no grains were formed, resulting in 100% loss (Sharif, 1983).










Photo of Puccinia graminis f.sp. tritici (black rust)

 

Bibliography

Al-Ghobari, H.M. (2000). Estimation of reference evapotranspiration for southern region of Saudi Arabia. Irrigation Science 19; 81-86.

Anderson, J.N.D. (1986). The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 7th edition, Stacey International, London and New Jersey. 256pp.

Natour, R.M. (1970). A survey of plant diseases in Saudi Arabia. Beiträge zur Tropischen und Subtropischen Landwirtschaft und Tropenvetenerinärmedizin 8; 65-70.

Sharif, M. (1983). Wheat diseases in the Central and Eastern Regions of Saudi Arabia. Ministry of Agriculture and Water, Regional Agriculture and Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 52pp.

Shehata, W.M. & Amin, A.A. (1997). Geotechnical hazards associated with desert environment. Natural Hazards 16; 81-95.

Van-Ollenbach, A.W. (1978). Planting Guide to the Middle East, The Architectural Press Ltd., London. 154pp.



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