RIYADH: King Salman inaugurated the Sustainable Agricultural Rural Development Program on Wednesday at his palace in Riyadh. 

The program aims to boost production, processing and marketing of fruit, fish, livestock, Arabic coffee and cultivation of rain-fed crops.

The Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture, Abdulrahman bin Abdulmohsen Al-Fadhli, thanked the king for patronizing the launch of the program. 

He said the program would also help small producers across the Kingdom.

The program will not only boost investment in the agriculture sector but it will also diversify the sector, improve the incomes of small farmers, create job opportunities and contribute to food security and sustainable development.

Vision 2030 aims to diversify the economy by developing the economic sector to achieve sustainable development. It further emphasizes reserving natural resources including the rationalization of water consumption in agriculture and achieving food security to increase the share of the agriculture sector in the gross domestic product, which will help in the main agenda, economic diversification.

The king expressed his happiness over the overall progress of the country. He thanked God for blessing the Kingdom with resources and honoring it with the presence of the Two Holy Mosques.

The minister presented the king with a commemorative gift.