The future of farming in the UAE may surprise you. No, it does not have anything to do with finding the right hybrid of crops that can sustain desert heat. It also doesn’t involve the use of hi-tech agricultural machines.
The answer is actually simple: make the desert soil hold on to more water.
A team of agricultural experts are now on their way to developing their recent innovation. Before, farmers need to use tankers to transport water to desert farms, a method so impractical that the UAE has decided to look into importing a staggering 80% of their food instead. That’s on top of the fact that more and more land areas are turning into deserts because of drought, increased deforestation activities and farming methods.
Now, the said experts are introducing the use of liquid clay to give desert farming a boost.
This technique is the brainchild of Norwegian scientist Kristian Morten Olesen, who has developed a process of mixing nano-particles of clay with water, then binding them to sand particles. This process is called Liquid Nanoclay (LNC).
“The treatment gives sand particles a clay coating which completely changes their physical properties and allows them to bind with water,” Olesen said as reported by BBC.
“This process doesn’t involve any chemical agents. We can change any poor-quality sandy soils into high-yield agricultural land in just seven hours,” he added.
Olesen explains that sand particles are loose, and can only hold little water. When mixed with LNC, sand particles become bound together and can therefore be able to hold water for longer periods of time.
The process has been introduced and tested in farms owned by Faisal Mohammed Al Shimmari.
“I am amazed to see the success of LNC. It just saved consumption of water by more than 50%. It means now I can double the green cover with the same water,” Al Shimmari said.
Desert farms can avail of the LNC treatment for $1,800-$9,500 per hectare or for every 2.4 acres of land.
For tilled land, a 15%-20% retreatment after four or five years will suffice. The treatment will last longer for untilled land.
For now, Olesen said it is looking into introducing LNC to municipal governments and commercial growers.
