'Living sand' aims to bring crops to infertile desert wastelands
Agriculture in the United Arab Emirates is associated with a lot of challenges.
Most of the country is desert, and only about 5% of its land is suitable for farming. This means that the UAE can produce only 10% to 15% of its food supply, and relies heavily on imports, which is never ideal. And if this sounds like a distant, localized issue only affecting someplace far away, think again. With rapid deforestation and global warming, more territories around the world are becoming desert-like, and this problem might become much more relatable sooner than we think.
It doesn’t rain much in the UAE, to say the least, and even with irrigation, growing crops in sand is a huge challenge. Sand doesn’t contain many nutrients, and its grains don’t stick together like particles in fertile soil do. That’s why sandy soil is highly prone to erosion, as it simply can’t hold...
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