ABSTRACT
Traditional nomadism as a production system no longer exists in Saudi Arabia. The use of motor vehicles in nomadic movements and transportation of animals between grazing areas have mechanized nomadic operations. The availability of cheap subsidized animal feeds have encouraged livestock producers to expand their flocks and commercialized nomadic production. Due to overstocking and range deterioration, dependency on range forage as a basic feed source has declined from 100 percent to less than 20 percent. With increasing dependency on barley feed as a substitute for range forage, any change in subsidy policy is expected to have serious impacts on nomadic production. To assess such impacts data on production and returns from a recent survey of nomadic operations in northern Saudi Arabia were used. Results showed that a one percent cut in base subsidy is expected to increase local barley prices by 1.5 percent from their level in 1987, raise feeding costs by 1.6 percent and reduce net income by 1.5 percent in the small nomadic operations, 0.9 percent in the medium and by 0.3 percent in the large operations.
