9.8% rise in agricultural activities

Most of the sectors witnessed slowdown after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, but at least two sectors — agriculture and fisheries — showed impressive growth, as combined growth of these sectors reached 9.8 per cent to reach RO 571 million by end of September 2020, compared to RO 520.1 million during the same period in 2019, according to NCSI. Despite the decline in the GDP, several economic sectors have succeeded in achieving good performance and growing at good rates, especially agriculture, fisheries, hotels and restaurants, which are among the sectors that are a pillar of growth in plans and programmes to enhance economic diversification. The growth rate of the total output of the agriculture and fishery sectors in the Sultanate during the first half of last year amounted to 13.2 per cent, and it is one of the highest compared to other non-oil sectors. Dr Ahmed bin Nasser al Bakri, Under-Secretary of the Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources for Agriculture said during a TV interview that this growth confirmed the correct path of economic diversification policies in the Sultanate and the government’s support for those policies in the agricultural field. He noted that the contribution of the agricultural and fish sectors to the GDP in 2019 amounted to 2.4 per cent and 3.5 per cent respectively, within total non-oil activities. The volume of production of the agricultural sector, including plant, animal and fish sectors has grown at the end of 2019 to reach 3.9 million tonnes. Also, the volume of plant production has jumped during the past years from one million and 400,000 tonnes in 2011 to more than 3 million tonnes at the end of the year 2019, with an average growth rate of about 10.2 per cent. “This was achieved with the support of the government and private sector projects, which contributed to a quantum leap in plant sector’’, the under-secretary stressed. A recent report by the ministry said Oman’s annual wheat production increased 132 per cent in the 2019-2020 agricultural season to 2,226 tonnes, as the area planted with wheat expanded to 75 per cent. According to data, the Sultanate harvested 962 tonnes of wheat in the previous season. This rise is attributable primarily to the increase of cultivated areas by farmers, the spread of cultivation of crops with high productivity and resistance to diseases and pests, improvement of agricultural methods, use of agricultural mechanisation, provision for seeds by the ministry, strengthening technical visits by specialists to farms, paying attention to fertilisation processes.   Zainab al Nassri @zainabalnasseri