Page 476 - Bahrain Gov Annual Reports (IV)_Neat

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The organic matter content is very low indeed, and it is perhaps fortunate that the only
kind of fertiliser available in Bahrain is of organic origin. There is a current opinion locally
that artificial fertilisers would be the saviour of poor cropping, and requests have been made
many times for their importation, but for many reasons this has not been done.
It is the practice to manure heavily vegetables and curcurbits but lucerne is only occasion­
ally manured ; date palms and other fruit trees never arc. The quality of manure is generally
very poor, cow dung always being preferred. Camel dung has to be placed well before the time
of planting, because of the great number of weed seeds it contains.
There has, of late, been a slight shortage of good manure, and the need for alternatives is
becoming more obvious. Several alternatives have been investigated at Budaiya Experimental
Centre, including fresh seaweed, composted seaweed (with guano), and various vegetable-waste
composts. The most successful of these has been a vegetable compost adapted from Howard’s
Indore method of composting.
The availability of suitable irrigation supplies quite definitely defines agricultural areas.
Only one northern section of the Island is cultivated to any extent, and then only intermittently
and to a depth of about 2J miles. This cultivated area, however, is extended in two narrow
strips down East and West coasts, the longest strip being 14 miles long (on the west side) and it
has been estimated that the total area under cultivation is 15 sq. miles (or about 4,000 hectares)
representing approximately 7 per cent, of the Islands. Considering that Bahrain is within a vast
natural desert region, this figure is high. Comparative figures for some neighbouring countries
(see (2) of index) are shown in Table 2 below.
TABLE 2 (in 1,000 hectares)
Cultivated
Country Total Cultivated as per cent, of
Area Land Total Area
Iran 164,800 16,760 10
Iraq 43,532 2,650 6
Kuwait 2,072
Qatar 2,200
Saudi Arabia 154,600 20
Total Near East (23 countries) 1,093,000 61,000 6

Land measurement in Bahrain is either by the “Maghras,” or by the square foot. The
“Maghras” is used in the case of dateplantations.and measures 19 ft. x 19 ft. (nineteen feet being
the “official” planting distance between date palms). In all other cases, the square foot is used.

II. The Irrigation Water
Bahrain’s water supply on which its agriculture depends (the annual rainfall is 2.9 inches) is
very definitely limited, and the falling static head over the past few years has caused some con­
cern. Some four years ago an Agricultural Water Committee was set up by the Government to
exercise strict control in the amount of water being drawn from the artesian supplies. They did
this (and still do) by restricting the drilling of new wells, and by ordering inefficient wells to be
plugged back. It is common for each cultivation to have its own well (or wells) and the tendency
now, in the case of virgin land intended for agricultural development, is to grant permission to
drill an artesian well only if it is considered that the land will yield satisfactory returns. In the
case of an old well giving lower delivery than originally, and proven insufficient to irrigate the
cultivation, it is often agreed to grant permission for a new well provided the old one is plugged
back. In all cases (except public wells for drinking, or washing water) the expense of drilling,
maintaining, and plugging back is met by the land owner (or applicant) and in all cases (except
BAPCO wells) the drilling is done by engineers of H.H. The Shaikh of Bahrain.
There is some doubt as to the origin of the underground water supplies, a common theory
being that the main water-bearing strata outcrops at a high elevation in the hills of the Dahana
Desert where rainfall is considerable. According to BAPCO (Bahrain Petroleum Company)
they have information which strongly supports this theory, inasmuch as the water-bearing
strata can be traced back to this area and their static head data shows a hydraulic gradient from
the Dahana eastwards to Bahrain. The static head varies from about 1,000 feet at M’aqala
to a few feet at Bahrain.