The Department of Natural Resource Economics provides a training to support the competitiveness and economic efficiency of Omani agriculture, fisheries and food industries through integrated educational and research programs.

Through teaching and research activities, the Department applies economic theories to problems of social and economic development, natural resource and environmental management issues, including fisheries and water. Issues which the Department would typically consider at a graduate level include how best an economy would use its natural resources over time, or how a fish processing business in Oman might organize its purchases of inputs so as to maximize. its profitability using mathematical modeling techniques, or what is the most efficient way of allocating water to different users or how the negative impacts on natural resources and the environment of industrial development should be evaluated, or the assessment of the benefits of collective action for the improvement of incomes in the small-scale fishing and farming industries, or impacts of trade liberalization on consumer welfare.