MED-Amin network

JEDDAH: Considering some 90 percent of Saudi Arabia’s territory is largely desert and ill-suited for farming, few might expect the Kingdom to be the site of a new agricultural boom designed to boost domestic crop production and reduce dependence on imported foodstuffs. As large swathes of the Arab world struggle with food insecurity and supply-chain disruptions, the Kingdom’s initiatives, investments and technological innovations are redefining what it means to achieve self-sufficiency in many food items across one of the world’s most arid regions.

The Kingdom of Morocco's agricultural capacity, despite the drought and the difficulties caused by the war in Ukraine, is thriving. Moroccan Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch noted that this year will also be challenging, but the government is trying to overcome it "with significant productivity in several production chains". Attention to strategic food security in the current international context is one of the government's major challenges, he added.

Middle Eastern countries are boosting their food independence to counter the coming wheat shortfall. But despite some encouraging initiatives, existing challenges make food sovereignty almost impossible — for now.

Senegalese eaters consume an astounding 8 million baguettes per day. In 2022, Senegal imported more than 800,000 tons of wheat to meet demand. The country has imported most of its wheat from Russia in recent years, and the Russian war against Ukraine has made wheat and other commodity crop prices uncertain. But there is a growing movement to incorporate local, traditional crops into breadmaking to help reduce Senegal’s reliance on imports—and promote food sovereignty for West Africa.

At an agricultural storage complex in the Egyptian city of Banha, Ahmed Nasser watches truck after truck offload freshly-threshed grain from the surrounding Nile Delta. Cut off from much of the Black Sea wheat it depended on by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Egypt, often the world's biggest importer, is straining to extract whatever it can from a local harvest, now in full flow.

Since the end of French colonization in 1956, successive Tunisian governments have managed to ensure access to healthy and sufficient food for the vast majority of its citizens. Tunisia has a low level of hunger, with a 2018 score of 7.9 out of 50 on the Global Hunger Index (GHI), and this number has continued to trend downwards. Most Tunisians eat their fill and some even allow themselves luxury food products from time to time. Physical access to something to eat without too much trouble is not the challenge. The question is, given the context of a stagnant economy and high unemployment: at what cost?