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         The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the systems of agricultural subsidies in Saudi Arabia by choosing a set of efficiency and equity criteria.  It is observed that huge amounts were paid for input and output subsidies, which contributed to the high rate of growth in the agricultural sector and the remarkable increases in the production of some agricultural products.

           But despite the observed growth, the paper identifies certain characteristics of the agricultural subsidies programs such as: their bias towards the support of one crop (wheat), their emphasis on large agricultural projects and their indirect effect of stimulating imports.  The paper also outlines the effects of the subsidies on resource use and their effects on regional and rural development.