The arable land in the Sultanate is estimated at 5.5 million acres, while the area under agricultural stands at 355,000 acres, 262,000 acres of which is utilised depending on the availability of water, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources. The ministry has intensified efforts to search for new agricultural lands with water availability to create new investment projects and to organise and protect land use.
The ministry has adopted new methods to enhance agricultural investments and intensify interest in small and medium enterprises and agricultural associations as an alternative to the existing systems.
In addition, it works to activate the relationship between the government and private sectors to establish large investment projects which will increase local food production, raise self-sufficiency ratios and enhance food security.
As a reflection of the efforts made in this direction, the agricultural sector, plant and animal husbandry achieved promising growth rates in 2019. The agricultural sector’s contribution to the GDP increased at current prices from RO 416 million in 2018 to RO 433 million in 2019, recording a growth rate of about 4 per cent.
The total volume of plant production reached 3,018 tonnes in 2019 compared to 2,951 tonnes in 2018, recording an annual growth rate of 2.3 per cent. This is due to the increase in productivity per unit area as a result of the use of modern technologies by agricultural companies and farmers of the agricultural association, which undoubtedly contributed to increasing the volume of agricultural production, and adopting integrated production and prevention packages,” the ministry said.
For the animal wealth, the Sultanate has animal wealth estimated at 3.7 million heads. The total volume of animal production increased from 296,000 tonnes in 2018 to 301,000 tonnes in 2019, with an annual growth rate of about 1.7 per cent. It is expected that the volume of animal production will increase during the coming years due to the production of commercial companies that have been established by the Oman Food Investment Holding Company.
The ministry implements many programmes and projects related to livestock, the most prominent of which is the implementation of two programmes for treating and immunising livestock.
The number of veterinary clinics stood at 70 distributed over all governorates, while there is only one veterinary hospital in Salalah, Dhofar. However, treating and vaccinating livestock in remote regions are done through the mobile veterinary clinics prepared by the ministry, which number 41 clinics.
Private veterinary establishments are also being taken care of and organised by the ministry. There are 241 private vet clinics and pharmacies, in addition to 5 laboratories distributed in various governorates.
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