At the height of the Covid-19 lockdown, a remarkable transformation was underway in a corner of the United Arab Emirates. Over the course of only 40 days, a once barren plot situated in a landlocked desert nation was completely transformed, burgeoning with ripe watermelons swelling beneath the blistering Arabian sun.
An extraordinary milestone
For a country that formerly imported 90% of its fresh produce, the achievement marked an extraordinary milestone. A pocket of the unforgiving Arabian desert had been transformed into a lush fruit farm through the addition of two key components: clay and water. Agriculture was made possible with the help of liquid nanoclay, a revolutionary soil recovery technology whose story began two decades ago, 1,500 miles away.
During the 1980s, Egypt’s Nile Delta, a region renowned for its agriculture, gradually stopped flourishing, placing livelihoods and food security in jeopardy. Each year during the late summer, the Nile River floods the delta before receding again. Scientists investigating the decline in land fertility discovered that the floodwaters carried with them vital nutrients, minerals, and crucial clay particles from the East African drainage basin. Recently, the clay that improved the soil’s fertility and resilience beyond measure had been impeded from flowing downstream due to the construction of the Aswan Dam. Without this annual top up, all of the nutrients in the delta soil had been used up, with the soil structure suffering as a result.
Accessible, environmentally safe, and cost-effective
Ole Sivertsen, the chief executive of Desert Control, the Norwegian company responsible for developing the nanoclay approach, explained that once the soil scientists had figured out the problem, they had the beginnings of a solution. Mr. Sivertsen suggested that the problem is similar to what can be seen in any garden, with thin soil struggling to hold moisture and enabling plants to thrive. Mr. Sivertsen said that the presence of clay in the right proportions can change all of that drastically. His company, Desert Control, hopes to use nanoclay to transform unproductive parts of the desert “from sand to hope.”
Nanoclays belong to a large group of clay minerals. They are readily accessible, environmentally safe, and cost-effective chemical compounds. Very much supportive in remediation and natural insurance, nanoclays are also potential absorbents of toxic compounds in water. They pose significant potential in pollutant removal. Nanoclays are sometimes combined with fire retardants to reduce fire toxicity. In addition, nanoclays can be combined with pesticides to reduce soil-leaching losses and achieve optimum biological activity at the target location.
Desertification a growing problem
Desertification is a huge problem across the Middle East today that causes the degradation of drylands over time. This can be triggered by a range of environmental factors, as well as human activity. One common cause of desertification is overexploitation, where nutrients are taken too quickly from the soil without allowing adequate time for the soil to recover. Prolonged periods of drought and deforestation are also possible causes.
Whatever the cause, the results are the same, culminating in ever-expanding areas of land incapable of supporting agriculture. Approximately 40% of the earth’s land mass is classified as dryland. Of this area, 10%-20% has degraded due to desertification, culminating in a total global area the size of Europe and Australia combined, which cannot be farmed.
This problem is steadily growing more acute as dryland soil conditions continue to deteriorate. Researchers warn that 1 billion people globally will be affected by further desertification in coming years. Developed to tackle this global challenge, nanoclay can go a long way towards improving soil conditions. When combined with dry soils, it helps them to retain more water, providing more nutrients to sustain the healthy growth of crops.
Mixing soil with heavy clay is incredibly challenging and labor-intensive. In addition, the process exposes carbon sequestered in the topsoil to the elements, releasing it back into the atmosphere. It also harms soil systems by destroying vital fungal networks. However, Desert Control’s nanoclay solution retains many of the soil-improving qualities of clay without requiring the potentially harmful task of mixing clay into the soil. Simply by spraying the nanoclay across the surface of the soil via a water based solution, farmers can create the right conditions for the clay mixture to permeate the soil upon irrigation, with nano-sized particles of the clay mixture permeating to an optimum depth of between 10 and 20 centimeters.
Liquid nanoclay could be a game-changer
Liquid nanoclay could disrupt the future of farming by transforming desolate waste grounds into fertile oases. With 80% of the world’s most underserved communities residing in rural communities that rely heavily on farming, liquid nanoclay poses game-changing potential, particularly in the Middle East, a region renowned for its water scarcity and harsh climate.
Recognizing the significant challenges faced by farmers due to soil degradation, which in turn affects productivity and increases water scarcity, Desert Control aims to address these issues through innovation, developing efficient and sustainable solutions to revitalize degraded regions. Desert Control hopes to conserve water, reduce irrigation, preserve nutrients, maximize harvests, and increase crop performance, providing a considerable boost to food security across the Middle East and beyond.