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What if we could turn deserts into farmlands?

How would we go about bringing new life to the harsh deserts? How much would this transformation cost
and what would be the consequences?

With global population on a rise and a decrease in healthy land to practice farming, it is now time to
create new agricultural technologies. Deserts cover one third of all the land on Earth. They are the driest

ecosystems on the planet, receiving less than 25cm of rain every year. So why not turn these barren lands
into something more useful? But could transforming an entire ecosystem create an even bigger climate
crisis? Growing anything in sand is tough because some deserts can lose up to 33 times more water than
they receive. This happens through the processes of evaporation and transpiration, or together known as
evapotranspiration. If we want to transform deserts into farmland, we need to help the land retain more

water.

One method would be a revolutionary way of mixing very small amounts of clay into the soil. Nano clay is

extremely tiny particles of clay, 500 times smaller than a single strand of hair. If we layer this clay around
each particle of sand, it would allow water and nutrients to stick together.

According to research in the United Arab Emirates, tests found that this process reduced water usage by
47%. In just 40 days, a barren plot of sand was able to grow watermelons. And the only two components

used were water and clay, which are being added to the soil by farmers for thousands of years.

However, it won’t be that simple. Working with thick clay would be extremely labor intensive. It would
also disrupt the underground ecosystem by releasing large amounts of carbon dioxide. It could even

creating a waterproof seal over the surface. If we add this Nano clay liquid into the water irrigation system
like sprinklers, then it would make it’s way down to the roots. If successful then the desert sands would
now retain more water. From that the entire desert sand could be transformed into a high yield of healthy
soil.

But to bring about this transformation, we need a lot starting material and financial back-up. This needs
to be practiced repeatedly which might cross the budget. On one hand, there will be a lot more produce -
no more sand or dust storms to interrupt roads and railways. While on the other hand, we might lose the

entire Amazon Rainforest. The sand from the largest hot dessert on earth, the Sahara, gets picked up by
the wind and crosses the Atlantic Ocean all the way to South America. On its way to Amazon, the dust
particles pick up the moisture from the ocean. Then they fall over the Amazon in the form of rain. This
sand water combo also brings along minerals and silts which act as fertilizer to flourish the flora and

fauna in the rainforest.

Turning deserts green would disturb this fertilization process which could lose the Amazon rainforest
forever. This would result in drastic climate change due to disruption of Earth’s natural balance. All the

new plants that were grown on the newly transformed land might not be enough to prevent the crisis.
Liquid Nano clay is just one idea to help bring about sustainable agricultural growth to the planet’s most
extreme environment. However, one step forward in this area can cost us in other areas.

~ Ms. Sukanya Venugopal Malvankar
(T.Y.BSc 2021-22) 3