Al Qassim Province
Al-Qassim's date farms (56km²) and 23.6% of Saudi barley production make it the kingdom's breadbasket despite rare rainfall and groundwater limits.
Al-Qassim functions as Saudi Arabia's agricultural heartland, the province containing one of the world's largest date palm farms (56 km²) and one of the world's largest date markets. Despite rare rainfall, groundwater resources sustain cultivation that makes Qassim a breadbasket within a kingdom where most territory cannot support agriculture.
Barley cultivation covers 221,760 dunams—23.6% of Saudi Arabia's total—the province anchoring grain production alongside the date cultivation that defines its identity. This agricultural concentration reflects investments in irrigation infrastructure that transform desert into farmland, though groundwater depletion raises long-term sustainability questions that current productivity obscures.
As one of Saudi Arabia's three smallest provinces by area (73,000 km²), Qassim demonstrates how water availability rather than land area determines agricultural significance. Vision 2030's food security objectives elevate the province's importance, the domestic production capacity that reduces import dependence acquiring strategic value beyond commercial agriculture.