Like a scene from Dune, the French–Moroccan startup Sand to Green aims to turn the desert from threat to food producer. It’s a lesson Australia also needs to learn. “If we were to try to produce all the food we will need in 2050 using current production systems, the world would have to convert most of its remaining forests,” Tim Searchinger of the World Resources Institute says.

Over 90% of Morocco is located in an arid to semi-arid climate, and two thirds of the country is in desert. The country is “highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Water scarcity, food insecurity, desertification, and shoreline erosion are all already growing problems. The country loses about 31,000 hectares of forest each year … due to fires, deforestation for firewood and/or construction wood, and the extension of crops, cereals, and pastures.” Desertification through rising temperatures and more frequent and severe droughts result in the loss of topsoil, which has taken hundreds of years to build up. “Sand to Green aims to create new arable land in Morocco, while continuing to fund research and development (R&D) of desalination and measuring soil re-fertilisation. For the first quarter of 2023, the start-up is announcing the creation of 20 hectares of arable land for agriculture in the south of the Cherifian kingdom,” Afrik 21 writes.

Several investors, including Katapult and Catalyst Fund, have contributed one million dollars to advance the project to “green deserts through agroforestry and water desalination.”

“We will offer these plantations as green investment products to investors, while taking care of their development and associated services such as agronomic expertise, operations and commodity production,” explains Benjamin Rombaut, managing director and co-founder of Sand to Green. “This will allow them to finance soil regenerating and ecological agriculture or agroforestry that does not create deforestation, but ensures similar or even higher yields than conventional agriculture.”

The startup is using drip irrigation with desalinated sea or brackish water. Satellite data will enable daily monitoring and management. Sand to Green has been field testing its techniques for the past three years in the Guelmin-Oued Noun region of Morocco. The farming systems have proven themselves resilient.
The Catalyst Fund states: “The Sand to Green model is founded on three interconnected pillars:

Large tracts are farmed with adapted food-producing trees that are maintained with Sand to Green’s agroforestry approach, which maximizes production and yield through a combined strategy of different cropping patterns. Their model combines three layers of trees with different intercropping. All varieties chosen require small amounts of water, are salt-tolerant, have high value for local communities, strong carbon absorption, and soil regeneration capacities.
Climate-smart irrigation systems powered by solar energy.

The farms are irrigated through three connected systems: Sand to Green’s reverse osmosis technique and solar-powered desalination units produce fresh water from seawater and brackish water with minimal environmental impact and optimized costs. That water is delivered via drip irrigation techniques that bring the water necessary for plant growth directly to the root system, minimizing evaporation and water loss, and reducing overall water consumption by 30 to 50%. Finally, a hydro-shrinker solution maximizes the use of water thanks to a natural hydro-retainer, biochar, capable of increasing the quality of soils, storing carbon, and also retaining water to avoid its runoff and increase water retention.
“The third and final pillar is customized agroforestry software for farmers to create and manage farms in arid environments. This enables day-to-day management facilitated by field and satellite data.”

In contrast, the Great Green Wall project is failing to meet its objectives in the Sahel countries due to insecurity in the regions proposed. “Launched in 2007 by the AU, the initiative initially envisaged the continuous planting of millions of trees over a 15 km wide strip from Senegal to Djibouti. In 2013, the vision was reoriented towards a broad programme of sustainable ecosystem management and improving the living conditions of rural populations affected by land degradation. The project’s goals include restoring 100 million hectares of land, capturing and storing 250 million tons of CO2 through vegetation by 2030, and creating 10 million jobs in rural areas while contributing to food security in one of the world’s most malnourished regions.”

After 15 years of work (from 2007), the project is only 20% complete, mainly in Senegal and Ethiopia. The African Union has decided that the project will now extend to southern Africa. READ further from the source