I suspect that you thought of something along the lines of Oklahoma or somewhere else along the Great Plains, but what if I told you to add Saudi Arabia to that list. Sounds weird, right? A desert growing wheat? Something seems wrong.
Nope! It is true. Saudi Arabia, a country made of mostly desert land is, in fact, practicing agriculture in the center of it all. This was all possible because of irrigation and it's not a new technique in fact. We practice the same thing in the United States, in areas like the desert regions of Nevada. This seems like a good idea for the economy perhaps (although it would take a lot to set up such a system), but what about the water supply? In these regions up to 90% of the water can be lost to evaporation. There is actually a new idea called the Sahara Forest Project which is an organization which is trying to create a sustainable way to supply water to desert regions on a wide scale. This would all be possible due to algae-based biomass cultivation, saltwater desalination, and solar thermal energy production. Sounds complicated right? Basically, the facilities would transform algae through photosynthesis into energy-rich biofuel. Still sounds complicated? Well, trust me, it is going to be cool.
First, it's alarming that Saudi Arabia would be growing wheat in desert due to the inefficient use of water, which is as precious there as anywhere. But then you talk about the Sahara Forest Project and the use of biomass cultivation amongst other things - very encouraging. Desalination is very expensive and takes a lot of diesel (traditionally) to do. Solar thermal is something that needs to be investigated and promoted more. Good job!
ReplyDelete