Cultivating the Desert: Agronomic and Social Analysis of the Farming Systems in the Oasis of al-‘Ulā, Saudi Arabia

– Cultivating the Desert: Agronomic and Social Analysis of the Farming Systems in the Oasis of al-‘Ulā, Saudi Arabia
Book or report the CNRS Project al-‘Ulā AS (al-‘Ulā AS Project: Anthropological survey of al-‘Ulā community and its oasis system),
Currently under writing: to be released in early 2025,
– Written by Elise Gaury & Vincent Battesti,
Approximately 150 pages.
– This book or report will be published in two languages, French and English..

– Abstract:

This richly illustrated report offers a scientific synthesis of the current state of oasis agriculture and livestock farming in the al-‘Ulā region of Saudi Arabia.

Based on the al-‘Ulā Anthropological Survey (al-‘Ulā AS) project, this report provides an overview of agriculture in the al-‘Ulā oasis, addressing its multiple dimensions, including agricultural, agronomic, social, and economic aspects. These interrelated dimensions shape practices, production systems, and their impacts on societies and territories.

The report draws on data collected by the CNRS research project al-‘Ulā Anthropological Survey (2019–2024), with a particular focus on agronomic data gathered by Élise Gaury (CNRS engineer) from a targeted sample of farms, as well as the long-term ethnographic research conducted throughout al-‘Ulā society.

Saudi Arabia has undergone several major waves of change. Oil exploitation and the redistribution of part of this wealth in the 1980s were at the heart of a wave that profoundly transformed Saudi lifestyles, including their relationship to land and labor. These changes disrupted the oasis agriculture of the al-‘Ulā region, where the income from agro-pastoral activities, once the sole source of subsistence, now appears to have become secondary in family income, although they are far from negligible.

This fieldwork highlights the coexistence of several oasis agricultural production systems in al-‘Ulā. Their analysis reveals how oasis agriculture currently contributes to the economic reproduction of domestic groups and oasis society as a whole. Using a systemic methodology developed over the course of the research, this study examines the combination of cropping systems at the production unit level. It identifies six production systems divided into three categories: low-diversification agricultural units, high-diversification units, and capital-intensive units.

Case studies in the report illustrate the profitability of each system, distinguishing between social-function systems, whose financial gross margins contribute to but do not fully sustain domestic group reproduction, and socio-economic-function systems, whose profits suffice for the reproduction of domestic groups.

Finally, this report is based on an exhaustive, reasoned and reasonable of the living organisms cultivated and raised by the inhabitants of the al-‘Ulā region. It considers both ancient and recently introduced species, varieties, and breeds. This inventory reflects the past and present choices of oasis and pastoral populations, illustrating how they construct their coexistence with non-human elements within the domestic sphere.