Saudi Arabia’s Sabic, a global chemical manufacturing company has signed an agreement with the National Research & Development Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (Estidamh) to manage and develop the centre’s business in Riyadh.

Abdulrahman Al-Fadley, Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture and Chairman of Estidamah board of members, and Sabic Vice Chairman & CEO Yousef Al-Benyan signed the agreement.

The new five-year agreement is effective from July 25, 2021, following the expiry of an arrangement agreed upon by Sabic and the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture (MEWA) in 2016 under which the former was mandated to run Estidamah for five years, which ends on July 24, 2021.

“The new agreement will promote Sabic’s contribution in developing Sustainable Agriculture programmes to achieve the goals of the National Strategy for Agriculture in the kingdom in line with Vision 2030,” said Al-Benyan.

As per the agreement, Sabic will assign eight staff to work & manage the Estidamah centre. In return, Sabic will benefit from the centre to conduct its research work.

Located in Riyadh Techno Valley on the campus of King Saud University in Riyadh, the Estidamah centre was established in 2013 as an agricultural research centre to conduct applied research on innovative technologies for sustainable agriculture. The centre’s research focuses on increasing production per unit area, improving quality, minimizing the use of pesticides, and improving water use efficiency.

Sabic collaborated with MEWA to fund, build, and operate the Estidamah centre.  The primary goal of the centre is to promote sustainable agriculture in Saudi Arabia and adopted advance agricultural tools to promote sustainable agriculture practices in Saudi Arabia, enable the optimal use of natural resources and water, to contribute to achieving food security, and preserving these resources for future generations.

The centre seeks to establish its position as a leading institution in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East region as an applied research institute that provides a range of agriculture-related solutions to public and private agencies at the national and international levels. Through research, it identifies practical, applicable solutions for the development, improvement, and implementation of agriculture technologies in the Kingdom. – TradeArabia News Service