IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i10p4574-d1657650.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Climate Change Effects on Dates Productivity in Saudi Arabia: Implications for Food Security

Author

Listed:
  • Abda Emam

    (Department of Agribusiness and Consumer Sciences, College of Agricultural Science and Food, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa 31982, Saudi Arabia)

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the impact of climatic alteration on food security in Saudi Arabia. Date productivity, temperature, and precipitation represent the data which were collected from various sources linked to the study subject and cover the period from 1980 to 2023. The Engle–Granger two-step procedure, the VECM, and forecast analysis were applied to test the long-term relationship, short-term integration, and forecasting, respectively. Moreover, qualitative analysis was used to reveal the influence of climatic change on food security. The results discovered long-term co-integration between date productivity and temperature. Additionally, the results revealed that there has been long-running co-integration between date productivity and the precipitation series. Temperature and precipitation negatively and significantly impacted date productivity during the study period. With reference to forecast results, the graph was validated using various forecast indicators: the Alpha, Gamma, Beta, and Mean Square Error equivalents were 1.0, 0.0, 0.0, and 5.47, respectively. Moreover, the growth rates of date productivity were equal to 0.82 and 0.08 for the periods from 1980 to 2022 and 2023 to 2034 (forecast), respectively, indicating that there is a decrease in the growth rate of date productivity (0.08) during the forecast period. From these results, the conclusion is that climatic change (temperature and precipitation) negatively impacts date productivity. In addition, the growth rate during the forecast period decreased, indicating that climatic change is affecting food security currently and will continue to do so in the future. This study recommended specific policy interventions and innovations in agricultural practices, including developing and implementing a national framework focused on climate-smart agriculture, balancing productivity, adaptation, and mitigation. This could be aligned with Vision 2030 and the Saudi Green Initiative. Additionally, this could include investing in research and development by increasing public–private partnerships to support agricultural R&D in arid regions, with a focus on heat- and drought-resistant crop varieties and water-efficient farming systems. Regarding agricultural innovations, these could include the use of renewable energy, particularly solar energy, the expansion of rainwater harvesting infrastructure, recycling treated wastewater for agriculture, and reducing reliance on groundwater sources.

Suggested Citation

  • Abda Emam, 2025. "Climate Change Effects on Dates Productivity in Saudi Arabia: Implications for Food Security," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-13, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:10:p:4574-:d:1657650
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/10/4574/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/10/4574/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stephen K. Wegren & Christel Elvestad, 2018. "Russia’s food self-sufficiency and food security: an assessment," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(5), pages 565-587, September.
    2. Akila Wijerathna-Yapa & Ranjith Pathirana, 2022. "Sustainable Agro-Food Systems for Addressing Climate Change and Food Security," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-26, September.
    3. Saeed Nosratabadi & Nesrine Khazami & Marwa Ben Abdallah & Zoltan Lackner & Shahab S. Band & Amir Mosavi & Csaba Mako, 2020. "Social Capital Contributions to Food Security: A Comprehensive Literature Review," Papers 2012.03606, arXiv.org.
    4. Mawuna Donald Houessou & Annemijn Cassee & Ben G. J. S. Sonneveld, 2021. "The Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Food Security in Rural and Urban Settlements in Benin: Do Allotment Gardens Soften the Blow?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-18, June.
    5. Emiliano Magrini & Mauro Vigani, 2016. "Technology adoption and the multiple dimensions of food security: the case of maize in Tanzania," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 8(4), pages 707-726, August.
    6. Keijiro Otsuka, 2013. "Food insecurity, income inequality, and the changing comparative advantage in world agriculture," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 44(s1), pages 7-18, November.
    7. Peng Zhu & Jennifer Burney & Jinfeng Chang & Zhenong Jin & Nathaniel D. Mueller & Qinchuan Xin & Jialu Xu & Le Yu & David Makowski & Philippe Ciais, 2022. "Warming reduces global agricultural production by decreasing cropping frequency and yields," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 12(11), pages 1016-1023, November.
    8. Abda Emam, 2023. "Saudi Fertilizers and Their Impact on Global Food Security: Present and Future," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-21, May.
    9. Abdullah Alhamdan & Yosef Alamri & Fahad Aljuhaim & Alaa Kotb & Emad Aljohani & Sharafeldin Alaagib & Mahmoud Elamshity, 2024. "Economic Analysis of the Impact of Waste on the Production and Consumption of Dates in Saudi Arabia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-14, November.
    10. Ahmad, Najid & Du, Liangsheng & Lu, Jiye & Wang, Jianlin & Li, Hong-Zhou & Hashmi, Muhammad Zaffar, 2017. "Modelling the CO2 emissions and economic growth in Croatia: Is there any environmental Kuznets curve?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 164-172.
    11. Abda Emam, 2022. "Present and future: Does agriculture affect economic growth and the environment in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia?," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 68(10), pages 380-392.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Abda Emam & Egbal Elmsaad, 2025. "Do Non-Agricultural Sectors Affect Food Security in Saudi Arabia?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-17, May.
    2. Abda Emam, 2023. "Saudi Fertilizers and Their Impact on Global Food Security: Present and Future," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-21, May.
    3. Abda Emam & Hassan Ali-Dinar, 2024. "Tourism’s Influence on Economic Growth and Environment in Saudi: Present and Future," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-17, November.
    4. Fetene, G.M. & Getehun, T.D., 2018. "Agricultural Technology Adoption for Food and Nutrition Security: Evidence from Ethiopia," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277332, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    5. Ouyang, Yaofu & Li, Peng, 2018. "On the nexus of financial development, economic growth, and energy consumption in China: New perspective from a GMM panel VAR approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 238-252.
    6. Jia Chen & Kuan Zhang, 2024. "Analysis on the spatiotemporal pattern and driving force of the spatial deviation index of grain and economy in counties in China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 19(12), pages 1-23, December.
    7. Tomiwa Sunday Adebayo & Abraham Ayobamiji Awosusi & Seun Damola Oladipupo & Ephraim Bonah Agyekum & Arunkumar Jayakumar & Nallapaneni Manoj Kumar, 2021. "Dominance of Fossil Fuels in Japan’s National Energy Mix and Implications for Environmental Sustainability," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(14), pages 1-20, July.
    8. Abdul Rehman & Hengyun Ma & Magdalena Radulescu & Crenguta Ileana Sinisi & Zahid Yousaf, 2021. "Energy Crisis in Pakistan and Economic Progress: Decoupling the Impact of Coal Energy Consumption in Power and Brick Kilns," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(17), pages 1-15, August.
    9. Olimpia Neagu, 2019. "The Link between Economic Complexity and Carbon Emissions in the European Union Countries: A Model Based on the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-27, August.
    10. Chiu-Ming Hsiao, 2022. "Economic Growth, CO 2 Emissions Quota and Optimal Allocation under Uncertainty," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-26, July.
    11. Acheampong, Alex O., 2019. "Modelling for insight: Does financial development improve environmental quality?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 156-179.
    12. Felix Nutakor & Sylvestre Bizumuremyi & Jinke Li & Wei Liu, 2020. "Does the Environmental Kuznets Curve for CO 2 Emissions Exist for Rwanda? Evidence from Bootstrapped Rolling-Window Granger Causality Test," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-11, October.
    13. Łukasz Nazarko & Eigirdas Žemaitis & Łukasz Krzysztof Wróblewski & Karel Šuhajda & Magdalena Zajączkowska, 2022. "The Impact of Energy Development of the European Union Euro Area Countries on CO 2 Emissions Level," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-12, February.
    14. Yogeeswari Subramaniam & Tajul Ariffin Masron & Niaz Ahmad Mohd Naseem, 2023. "The Impact of Logistics on Four Dimensions of Food Security in Developing Countries," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 14(3), pages 3431-3452, September.
    15. Héctor F. Salazar-Núñez & Francisco Venegas-Martínez & José Antonio Lozano-Díez, 2022. "Assessing the interdependence among renewable and non-renewable energies, economic growth, and CO2 emissions in Mexico," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(11), pages 12850-12866, November.
    16. Shinichi Kitano, 2021. "Estimation of Determinants of Farmland Abandonment and Its Data Problems," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-17, June.
    17. Ibitowa, Stephen Adesina, 2023. "Nigeria’s Financial Sector Development and Crude Oil Exports: Is There a Link?," OSF Preprints 9em5v, Center for Open Science.
    18. Stefan Beierl & Marina Dodlova, 2022. "Public Works Programmes and Cooperation for the Common Good: Evidence from Malawi," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 34(3), pages 1264-1284, June.
    19. Daniel Ştefan Armeanu & Georgeta Vintilă & Ştefan Cristian Gherghina, 2017. "Does Renewable Energy Drive Sustainable Economic Growth? Multivariate Panel Data Evidence for EU-28 Countries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-21, March.
    20. Emiko Fukase & Will Martin, 2016. "Who Will Feed China in the 21st Century? Income Growth and Food Demand and Supply in China," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(1), pages 3-23, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:10:p:4574-:d:1657650. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.