Effect of Different Cultivation Techniques on the Mineral Nutritional Quality of Selected Vegetables Grown in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Background: Vegetable production in arid regions such as Saudi Arabia is constrained by limited arable land, water scarcity, and soil quality. Alternative farming systems, including hydroponic and organic cultivation, have been promoted to enhance food security and nutritional quality. However, evidence comparing mineral composition of vegetables grown under different production systems in such environments remains limited. This study aimed to evaluate and compare the mineral content of vegetables cultivated using hydroponic, organic, and traditional farming systems in Saudi Arabia.
Methods: Pepper, tomato and cucumber samples from the three different cultivation systems from different farms across the Saudi Arabia were prepared for mineral analysis using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES). Water content and heavy metal levels were also measured.
Results: There was little variation in vegetable nutrient content among the different farming techniques. Organic and hydroponic systems yielded vegetables with comparable levels of water and potassium, calcium, magnesium, and trace elements including zinc, iron copper and selenium to conventional soil-grown vegetables. Additionally, levels of toxic heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic were low and similar across cultivation methods.
Conclusion: The findings indicate that mineral concentrations in vegetables were broadly comparable across hydroponic, organic, and traditional farming systems. These results suggest that, despite differences in cultivation practices, alternative production systems can achieve similar nutritional quality in terms of mineral content and support the use of hydroponic and organic systems as viable strategies for vegetable production in regions with limited arable land, such as Saudi Arabia, without compromising mineral nutrient availability.