Technical Report
5 June 2022
Prepared by the Organizing Committee of the KAUST Workshop for Sustainable Food Security
Overview
This Technical Report is comprised of detailed summaries of the presentations and discussions that took place at the KAUST Workshop for Sustainable Food Security on 14-16 March 2022 at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). This report is meant to serve as a tool for reference to support the statements in the Summit Declarations, which were drafted by the primary organizers of the Workshop and presented at the conclusion of the Summit proceedings on Wednesday, 16 March 2022.
Executive Summary
The KAUST Workshop for Sustainable Food Security was held on 14-16 March 2022 at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia and was organized by the KAUST Center for Desert Agriculture. The Workshop was attended virtually and on-site by more than 700 people and featured a diverse group of 60 speakers from research, government, and industry. The primary aim of the Workshop was to develop recommendations KAUST Workshop for Sustainable Food Security 2022 3 on what could be done to achieve sustainable food security in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), in support of the KSA’s Vision 2030 and the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.
On the first day of the Workshop, themed “Defining Issues”, keynote talks and expert-led panels defined and prioritized food security challenges in the KSA. During the second day of the workshop, “Developing Solutions”, international leaders and in-Kingdom stakeholders proposed high-impact scientific, technological, and policy solutions for the KSA food sector. At the “Delivering Solutions” Summit on the final day, government, industry, giga project, and startup leaders from across the Kingdom gathered to formulate policy recommendations and strategies to deliver solutions for sustainable food security in the KSA.
Four key issues served as the framework for the discussion: food supply, water use, food use, and environmental change. Within this framework, a total of 18 different sessions took place at the Workshop. Each session focused on a unique and consequential topic for KSA food security. The diversity of topics reflected the complexity of the problem. However, discussions revealed common themes and cross-cutting solutions.
Based on these discussions, the primary thesis emerging from the Workshop was the following:
Sustainable food security will require that we produce our own food where, when, and how it makes sense, given the country’s resource and environmental constraints, and supplement any shortfalls in domestic supply with a diverse portfolio of sustainably-sourced imports.
Several key points were made repeatedly during the Workshop:
1. A skilled technical workforce is largely absent in the KSA, but will enhance the chance of success of innovation introduced in the KSA food sector.
2. Water usage in the KSA agricultural sector is inefficient and unsustainable. This problem should be resolved as soon as possible through a comprehensive entitlement and monitoring program for water in agriculture which accounts for the socio-economic differences between farmers, and supports their transitions to more sustainable methods.
3. Technological innovation should be coupled with behavioral change and attitude shifts in both food producers and consumers.
4. Structured and sustained partnerships between universities, government, and industry will accelerate the adoption of critical technological innovations in the KSA food sector.
Everyone plays a role in the food system, and therefore everyone can contribute toward making it more sustainable. Nonetheless, clear guidance and goal-setting is required to ensure that strategies are effectively and efficiently implemented. Therefore, it is recommended to create a science-based platform that will enable transformation of the Saudi food system into one that is sustainable in all three dimensions: environmental, economic, and sociocultural, resilient and delivers healthy diets. The work will be carried out through transdisciplinary consortium where key scientific perspectives are combined and integrated, and where the scientific process of systematic inquiry is developed in close collaboration with non-academic partners from all parts of the food system. This consortium could be named “Saudi Food Futures”.