Saudi Gazette report

SAKAKA — Minister of Interior and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the King Salman Royal Reserve Development Authority Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Naif inaugurated the central nursery and wild seed research and production station in the Al-Jouf region. This project is considered as one of the key environmental initiatives supporting the development of vegetation cover and enhancing the sustainability of the natural environment within the reserve.

The project covers a total area of 1,600 hectares and includes integrated and advanced facilities in the field of plant production. These facilities include mother seed fields, seed storage facilities, nurseries, and a wild plant garden, supporting an integrated system for the production of local seeds and seedlings.

The mother seed production fields are the cornerstone of plant development in the reserve. They consist of 14 fields containing more than 400,000 trees and shrubs, representing more than 30 important local wild plant species within the reserve. The central nursery and wild seed research and production station forms the core of the project's plant cover, spanning 60,000 square meters. It includes 30 greenhouses with a total area of 15,000 square meters, two of which are dedicated to summer shade, covering 7,200 square meters. It also features a 10,000-square-meter hardening-off area divided into seven sections, with a production capacity of up to 1.5 million seedlings annually, encompassing 15 major plant species.

The project showcases a unique plant diversity through its 12,000-square-meter botanical garden, which includes more than 280 species of trees, shrubs, and perennial grasses. As part of the environmental aquaculture projects, the central nursery and the wild seed research and production station contributed to agricultural work in 10 locations distributed throughout the reserve. These include planting more than 4 million seedlings and scattering more than 8,000 kilograms of seeds, resulting in the growth of more than 5 million wild plants, in a step that reflects the reserve's commitment to restoring ecosystems and enhancing vegetation cover on a large scale.