Farm Factors & Their Effect or Wheat productivity in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Farm factors are considered determining elements of a farm capability to produce under different price policy alternatives. The objectives of this research is to study the existing situation of wheat yield in various types of farms in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, to specify and assess the main internal characteristics and factors of these farms, to determine the most affecting farm factors, and to estimate the effects of them on wheat yield. The study relied on cross sectional data and showed that the average cultivated farm size ranged between 0.5 donam and 5000 donams. The average yields of improved wheat and local wheat were about 302 k.g and 172 kg respectively. The farm types, the implementation of modern irrigation techniques, the farm management, the purpose of production, the number of farm workers per donam, and the applied quantity of fertilizers fertilizers vattied widely among farm tenure categories. Linear models were specified and statistically estimated to find out the effects of the farm size, the farm type – as represented with the ratio of owned area-the purpose of production – as represented with the ratio of area cultivated for the purpose of self sufficiency for the farm family, the level of fertilization per a donam in k.g, and the ratio of irrigated area, on wheat yield for both improved and local wheat. Other variables were excluded from the models to get rid of the problem of milticollinearity. Bartlett test showed no heterosticity exists in the estimated models. The estimated models showed that the farm size, the farm type, the level of fertilization and the ratio of irrigated area affected the yield of wheat significantly. The estimated coefficients for these variablez are, 0.03 k.g., 10 k.g, 4 k.g, 1 k.g respectively for local wheat. According to the results of this study it is recommended to concentrate wheat production in large farms especially owned ones, to intensify fertilizers to reach the optimum rates, and to in courage wheat producers to dig wells and to limit wheat production to irrigated areas