Agriculture in Oman is diversely structured and gives examples for traditional agricultural systems which have been sustainable over millennia, as well as for ecological and economical effects of fast and sudden modernization processes.
About 42% of the Omani population are employed in agriculture and fisheries. They produce about 46% of the food used for human nutrition in Oman, the rest is imported.

The country’s area includes only 2.2 million hectares of cultivable land, including arable land, grazing area and forests. For the cultivation of crops, only 61 550 ha (0.2% of the total area) were used in 1993, and all this area has to be irrigated (FAO 1997). This number may have risen since, as there has been a constant increase in irrigated area since 1970.

The most important crop grown is dates (44% of the agricultural area in 2000), followed by 23% vegetables (e.g. tomatoes, potatoes, cabbages), 16% alfalfa, 15% fruit (lemons, mangoes, banana, pomegranate and in Dhofar coconuts) and only 2% wheat and tobacco (FAO 1997).

Distribution of Land Use
Most of the agricultural production is concentrated along the coastal plains. In these regions, irrigation water is mostly taken from wells, and a fast process of modernization has taken place since the 1970’s. In the mountainous region of the north, oases settlements have developed where water from springs can be used through the aflaj irrigation system, which has been preserved up to today to a large extent. Some agricultural production exists in the deserts. fed from millenia old water reservoirs in great dephts.

To read more, please download the essay "Irrigation and Salinisation: A Comparison of Traditional and Modern Irrigation Agriculture" by
Sara Preißel and Moritz Reckling.

Continue to "Irrigation and Salinisation".

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