Prospects of Agriculture in the State of Kuwait-Constraints and Opportunities

Abstract

Kuwait is one of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member countries. Kuwait is water scarce country. The agriculture sector contributes only 0.4 % of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The engagement of local people to agriculture is less than 1.1 % and it is projected that climate change will greatly impact agricultural sector of Kuwait. Kuwait is one of the least agricultural countries in the world and the arable land amounts to less than 9 % of total acreage. Ninety one percent of national water requirements are reliant on costly desalinated water and 54 % of the total water is used for productive agriculture. Hence, there is an urgent need for adapting sustainable and economical crop production system to enhance production efficiency, productivity and quality. To overcome this situation, the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) aims to incorporate applied research into integrated farming systems, sustainable crop production and animal production technologies. This chapter focuses on constraints and possibilities of agriculture in Kuwait and on the major agricultural production research works conducted at Aridland Agricultural Production (AAPP), and Biodiversity for Terrestrial Ecosystems (BTEP) Programs of KISR.