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Sustainable strategic social agriculture the benefits can help prevent the depopulation of the rural areas, alleviate poverty, provide opportunities for employment in the agricultural villages, and help to ensure a healthy lifestyle and standard of living, education and training, and health services for the local population.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nThe University of Hail and the University of Arizona have joined forces in implementing Sustainable Strategic Social Agriculture in Hail.<\/span><\/h1>\nAccording to the FAO, Social Agriculture is an arrangement or strategy that provides village farmers (both men and women) with access to appropriate innovations and linkages to achieve economic profitability while fostering environmental sustainability.<\/span><\/p>\nSocial Agriculture in this sense is referred to as Sustainable Strategic Agriculture by the Global Institute for Strategic Agriculture in Drylands (GISAD) at the University of Arizona.<\/span><\/p>\nThe aims<\/span><\/strong><\/em> and objectives of this joint collaboration between the University of Hail and the University of Arizona are:<\/span><\/p>\n\u2022 In the short term<\/strong>, to address specific agricultural challenges in a given village in Saudi Arabia, which would result in significant benefit to the village;<\/span><\/p>\n\u2022 In the medium term<\/strong> introduce sustainable agricultural development practices to promote income and healthy lifestyle for farmers in the rural areas to promote economic growth, alleviate poverty and enhance food security;<\/span><\/p>\n\u2022 The long-term<\/strong> goal is to incorporate the sustainable strategic social agricultural program as part of the donations that Saudi Arabia gives to other countries. According to a recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) report, \u201cSaudi Arabia has given Arab nations SR85 billion ($22.7 billion) in direct aid over 40 months\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n\nincorporate the sustainable strategic social agricultural program as part of the donations that Saudi Arabia gives to other countries.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nAdditionally, the joint collaboration will seek the participation of the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Agriculture and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and the World Bank in the future.<\/span><\/p>\nSpearheading the joint collaboration is Dr Turki Faisal Al Rasheed, an Alumnus and Adjunct Professor at the University of Arizona Department of Agricultural and Bio-systems Engineering. His initial role is to bring the two universities together in this initiative to agree in the memorandum of understanding.The second stage is to be a promoter, activist, problem solver and lobbyist to achieve to a successful program. Finally his role will try to lobby to allocate some of the donation money to be spent on programs that cooperate with international organization such as social agriculture.<\/span><\/p>\nDr Al Rasheed\u2019s experience in this area includes authorship of \u201cAgricultural Development Strategies: the Saudi Experience\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\nThe Rector of the University of Hail, Prof Dr Khalil bin Ibrahim Al Ibrahim, together with Dr Khalid Asiry, Head of the Chair of Sheikh Al Jomaih for Sustainable Development in Agricultural Communities at the University of Hail, invited Prof Joel Cuello and Prof Kevin Fitzsimmons from the University of Arizona to visit Hail.<\/span><\/p>\nThe main goal of the visit was to start implementing sustainable strategic social agriculture in Hail by selecting a pilot village. The joint collaboration will work with the village to identify its most significant challenges such that, when addressed with a rather simple solution at a relatively low cost and over a moderate period of time, the village will experience significant beneficial impact<\/span><\/p>\nThe multi-functionality of sustainable strategic social agriculture:<\/span><\/p>\n\u2022 enable farmers to adopt environmental concerns and strategies to reduce their impact on climate change<\/span><\/p>\n\u2022 promote use of renewable water;<\/span><\/p>\n\u2022 lead to rehabilitation, therapy, sheltered work, life-long education and other activities that contribute to social inclusion;<\/span><\/p>\n\u2022 farmers seeking the latest information on prices and crop conditions are more likely to check their Twitter feed before calling their broker;<\/span><\/p>\n\u2022 empower rural communities to protect themselves from the devastating health diseases and financial crisis.<\/span><\/p>\n\u2022 improve nutrition and decrease micronutrient deficiencies with a diet from a more diversified selection of horticultural crops for a healthy lifestyle.<\/span><\/p>\nThrough sustainable strategic social agriculture the benefits can help prevent the depopulation of the rural areas, alleviate poverty, provide opportunities for employment in the agricultural villages, and help to ensure a healthy lifestyle and standard of living, education and training, and health services for the local population.<\/span><\/p>\nThis program helps the University of Hail to attain its principal goals, which necessitates assuming a leading position not only in education and research but also in community service and in innovation and development in support of the national economy.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe joint collaboration is committed to reaching out to the villages in Hail through sustainable strategic agriculture. This program helps the University of Hail to attain its principal goals, which necessitates assuming a leading position not only in education and research but also in community service and in innovation and development in support of the national economy.<\/span><\/p>\nDuring the two-day visit, the group visited various agricultural villages in Hail, including Bagaa\u2019, Al Khutta, Jedaidha and Al Jubbah, and spoke with the village farmers to determine the most significant and impactful challenges to their livelihood. By directly communicating with local farmers in the villages, the group is now able to understand how best to address those challenges.<\/span><\/p>\nThe group also held a meeting with selected stakeholders from the region to discuss the plans for piloting strategic social agriculture in Hail. In addition to the two Arizona visitors, Rector Khalil, Dr. Turki and Dr. Khalid, the meeting was attended by Vice Rector Ibraheem M. A. Ashankyty, Dr Monif M. AlRashidi Vice Dean of Scientific Research, and representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture and the agricultural industry, among others.<\/span><\/p>\nOnce the pilot village has been chosen, the initiative will be put into action and improvements will be monitored and reported on in the coming months.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sustainable strategic social agriculture the benefits can help prevent the depopulation of the rural areas, alleviate poverty, provide opportunities for employment in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3222"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7032,"href":"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3222\/revisions\/7032"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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