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In
2011 The Sahara Forest Project AS entered into cooperation with Yara ASA, the
world’s largest supplier of fertilizer and the Qatari company Qafco, the
world’s largest single site producer of urea and ammonia. After successfully
completing a comprehensive feasibility study on Qatar, the parties signed an
agreement to build the first fully operational Sahara Forest Project Pilot
Plant in Qatar.
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With scorching summer temperatures and little
rainfall, the barren scrublands around the port of Aqaba in Jordan, one of the
world's most arid countries, might seem ill suited to cultivating cucumbers.
Yet a Norwegian company is setting up a
solar-powered, 20 hectare (50 acre) facility that promises to grow a variety of
vegetables without wasting a drop of fresh water.
"We take what we have enough of - sunlight,
carbon dioxide, seawater and desert - to produce what we need more of - food
water and energy," said Joakim Hauge, chief executive of the Sahara Forest
Project (SFP).
Harnessing abundant resources to generate scarce
ones will be key to feeding a growing global population, set to reach 9 billion
by 2050, without damaging the environment or accelerating climate change, he said.
Food production must rise by about 60 percent by
2050 to generate enough for everyone to eat, according to the United Nation's
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Agriculture already accounts for 70 percent of
global fresh water use, while the food sector is responsible for more than 20
percent of planet-warming emissions and 30 percent of world energy consumption.
"We can no longer make solutions that come
at the expense of other sectors," said Hauge. "There is a need for a
more integrated approach".
The Aqaba complex, set to open in the summer,
evaporates salt water piped from the nearby Red Sea to cool greenhouses,
creating conditions for crops to grow all year round.
Sea water is also desalinated to generate salt
and fresh water for irrigation, while vapour from greenhouses is used to
humidify surrounding patches of parched land so plants can grow.
Agriculture
of Tomorrow?
SFP said a pilot project in the Gulf state of
Qatar generated cucumber yields comparable to those of European farms. Plans
are underway to expand operations to Tunisia.
But FAO experts said high costs involved limited
the potential of such projects to ramp up food production on a global scale.
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The
Sahara Forest Project is a new environmental solution to produce food, water
and energy in desert areas. “It is designed to utilize what we have enough of
to produce what we need more of, using deserts, saltwater and CO2 to produce
food, water and clean energy,” says Joakim Hauge.
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"You need a lot of energy and a lot of money
so...the question may arise whether the same resources could be put to better
use," said FAO natural resources officer Alessandro Flammini.
To be financially viable, production must focus
on high-value crops, like cucumbers and tomatoes, which poor countries might
find cheaper to import, said Flammini, who analyzed the Qatar pilot for a 2014
FAO report.
"It's an interesting concept for fulfilling
local needs and especially in terms of food independence and to meet the demand
of a niche market," he said.
The Aqaba complex had a US$3.7 million budget and
received financial support from Norway, the European Union and other investors,
according to SFP.
Hauge said besides producing food, the complex,
which will include a laboratory and research facilities, would produce side
benefits by greening arid areas and creating jobs.
"We believe that this is part of the
agriculture of tomorrow," the biologist-turned-entrepreneur told the
Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.
From
Australia to Somalia
Several other companies are employing similar
technologies in other arid corners of the world.
In 2016, UK-based agribusiness Sundrop Farms
Holding Ltd opened a vast greenhouse for tomato farming in the Australian
outback near Port Augusta, 300 km (190 miles) north of Adelaide.
The facility runs on energy mostly produced by a
115 metre solar tower that draws sunlight from 23,000 mirrors surrounding it.
"Traditional agriculture is wasteful in
terms of water and fossil fuels. In addition, unprotected crops are at the
mercy of the elements, causing gaps in supply, quality issues and price
spikes," Sundrop's CEO Philipp Saumweber said in an email.
The company has signed a 10-year contract to
supply Australian supermarket chain Coles with truss tomatoes and received
investments of about US$100 million from private equity firm KKR & Co,
according to a 2014 statement.
"While the capital expenditure required to
build our farms is slightly more expensive due to its cutting-edge nature, we
reap the benefits of this initial investment in the long run through savings of
fossil inputs," said Saumweber.
Around seven thousand miles away, in sun-baked and
drought-hit Somaliland, another British-based venture, Seawater Greenhouse, is
setting up a pilot facility aimed at making high-tech greenhouse production
more affordable.
"We have eliminated using fans," said
British inventor Charlie Paton, a former business partner of Saumweber, who
pioneered the use of solar energy and salt water for irrigation in the 1990s.
"We designed (the greenhouse) to be cool by
exploiting the prevailing wind. So it's a wind-cooled greenhouse," he said
in a phone interview.
The one-hectare complex, which received funding
from the British government, cost about US$100,000, he said, adding he expected
it to produce around 30 tonnes of tomatoes a year and 16 litres of drinking
water a day for irrigation and livestock.
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Cucumber
harvested at The Sahara Forest Project Pilot Facility in Qatar
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Paton said he hoped the greenhouse, which employs
mostly local staff, would serve as a hub for expansion across the Horn of
Africa.
"The region gets a lot of humanitarian aid
and that's arguably detrimental because if you give free food to people you put
farmers out of business," he said.
"It has more chances
of success if people can make money out of it."Originally published on THOMSON REUTERS FOUNDATION
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