Desert farming is a process that has been practiced for thousands of years that involves developing agriculture in deserts. In arid regions such as the Middle East, water scarcity makes farming particularly challenging since agricultural processes are heavily reliant on irrigation. Despite these significant challenges, humankind has been farming in desert environments since as far back as 5,000 BC, with archaeological remnants unearthed in the Negeb desert revealing the existence of agriculture in the region since ancient times.
In this article, we will look at three groundbreaking desert agricultural schemes currently underway in the Middle East.
1. Heenat Salma Farm – Qatar
With its harsh desert environment, Qatar is heavily reliant on foreign food imports. In recent years, farmers across the country have been looking towards new technologies to achieve better food security. Thanks to the ever-increasing implementation of hydroponics, local food production in Qatar increased from 66,000 tons to over 103,000 tons in 2021. One initiative that aims to optimize environmental technologies to facilitate restorative growth in arid regions is Heenat Salma Farm.
The first of its kind to experiment with organic farming in Qatar, Heenat Salma Farm is situated in Shahaniya, deep in the desert. It relies on a workforce of farmhands hailing from 15 different nations enlisted through the Caravane Earth Foundation. Heenat Salma Farm’s overriding objective is to address the global need for ethical approaches to local farming initiatives in order to heal the land and live in synch with the seasons. As Fahad Al Attiya, the farm’s proprietor points out, Qatar has grown from a population of 11,000 in 1941 to around 3 million people today. Mr Al Attiya cites reclaiming and cultivating the desert and underutilized land as critical to meeting the demand for food amid the country’s growing population.
Established in 2019, Caravane Earth Foundation brought together a group of experts in water infrastructure, agronomy, and architecture to create a holistic farm model. The foundation’s 10-year strategy centers around converting a traditional farm into a center for regenerative agriculture. Ultimately, Caravane Earth Foundation’s goal is to drastically increase food production in Qatar by introducing effective permaculture into the extreme climatic conditions, effectively creating a blueprint for similar schemes to be rolled out across the Middle East and beyond.
2. Al Shami’s Farm – Dubai
A shimmering gem lying at the heart of the Arabian Peninsula, Dubai is a testament to human ingenuity and ambition. Famed the world over for its luxurious lifestyle, vibrant culture, and breathtaking skyline, the city has been transformed from a modest trading post into a major international hub famed for tourism, commerce, and innovation.
Beyond its glitz and glamour, the State of Dubai embodies the spirit of resilience, not merely surviving but thriving despite its harsh environment characterized by vast deserts and limited water resources. In spite of its harsh terrain, Dubai has a long track record of turning seemingly insurmountable challenges into game-changing opportunities.
Forming part of the UAE, Dubai is home to a forward-thinking populace that continues to seek sustainable solutions to secure a prosperous future for all. One such visionary thinker is Abd Rahman Rashid Al Shami, an Emirati entrepreneur whose groundbreaking work is credited with revolutionizing agriculture in Dubai.
On the outskirts of Al Ain, Abd Rahman Rashid Al Shami has established an innovative aquaculture system that marries sustainable crop cultivation with fish farming, effectively providing a solution to the pressing issues of water and food scarcity in the desert. Situated more than 328,000 feet from the sea, Al Shami’s Farm is a remarkable oasis and a living example of ingenuity. By leveraging advanced techniques, Abd Rahman Rashid Al Shami has developed a method of producing three times the yield of a traditional farm while simultaneously cutting water consumption by 90%.
3. SEKEM Wahat Farm – Egypt
In Egypt’s traditional farming zones on the banks of the River Nile, there is hardly any fertile land left, with 90% of the country covered by desert. Faced with nothing but sand and extreme water shortages, Egyptian farmers face significant challenges. Nevertheless, on the outskirts of Cairo and across the country, desert farms are springing up, leveraging new technologies and encouraging soil formation with compost to counter the barren environment and produce bounties of wheat, tomatoes, eggplants, sesame, cumin, fennel, and more.
Covering 2,471 acres of desert, SEKEM Wahat Farm was created with the mission of transforming a desolate wasteland into a thriving, fertile terrain. The project was launched to encourage local people to contribute to a sustainable community that relies on the principles of biodynamic agriculture. The SEKEM Wahat Farm’s main goal is to create a community where local people can work, live, share, and develop together, reclaiming desertified land through biodynamic agriculture to simultaneously help ensure food security, combat climate change, and boost the economy.
The SEKEM community was established in 1977 on a farm in the northeastern Nile Delta, transforming the desert landscape to create fertile land for organic agriculture. Today, SEKEM Wahat Farm is a natural habitat for a multitude of flora and fauna, bringing together people from different cultural backgrounds to work, live, and thrive together.