Saudi Arabia Abandons Major Wheat Production Efforts - Too Water-Intensive

Duh.

RIYADH, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia is abandoning a 30-year programme to grow wheat that achieved self-sufficiency but depleted the desert kingdom's scarce water supplies.

The government will start reducing purchases of wheat from local farmers by 12.5 percent per year from this year, officials from the agriculture and finance ministries said on Tuesday.

The kingdom aims to rely entirely on imports by 2016. "The reason is water resources," said one official, who did not want to be identified. Saudi Arabia produces 2.5 million tonnes a year of durum and soft wheat, enough to meet domestic demand.

"The drought problem is crucial for Saudi Arabia but it is also more and more frequent in other dry countries such as Australia," a European trader said. In the 1970s, the government started a programme to encourage farmers to produce wheat, guaranteeing them at the time a massive 3,500 riyals ($933.5) for every tonne.

EDIT

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L08699206.htm

that attempting to grow a high-water using crop in a country with an average annual rainfall of 4 inches is not the smartest thing to do.

Any nation that relies on oil exports and food imports is going to be screwed, blued and tattooed by 2030.

The only places worse off will be regions that rely on both food imports AND oil imports. Like Africa.