Desert Farming Experiment Yields Good Initial Results 178
Taco Cowboy writes "For the past year or so, a tiny scale farming experiment in has been carried out in the desert field of Qatar, using only sunlight and seawater. From the article: 'A pilot plant built by the Sahara Forest Project (SFP) produced 75 kilograms of vegetables per square meter in three crops annually (or 25 kilograms per square meter, per crop)' If the yield level can be maintained, a farm of the size of 60 hectares would be enough to supply the nation of Qatar with all the cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, and egglants that it needs. 'The project will proceed to the next stage with an expansion to 20 hectares, to test its viability into commercial operation.'"
Re:Why those vegetables? (Score:5, Informative)
Why were those vegetables chosen instead of others? Why not radishes, etc?
Probably because all of those vegetables can be grown in a similar climate as each other, all of them have very similar growing techniques where the plant can be placed in a wire cage or mesh that supports vertical growth.
Each of those plants have broad leaves, can be cultivated to thrive in lower water, and can be cultivated to require a relatively small footprint.
When you are going to grow a bunch of water-loving plants in the desert, you are going to want tall self-shading structures. If you look at their greenhouses in the article you can see that vertical space is available but horizontal space is a premium.
I happen to live in a desert and have grown three of those four plants for decades. They grow well together.
Re:Economics (Score:5, Informative)
"We" already are starving and overpopulated** [worldhunger.org]. This research project is sponsored by companies operating in a very rich country - has potential to alleviate starvation and in the third world, but it is unlikely that will happen in our lifetimes. The evidence so far strongly suggests that we now live in a "winner-take-all" world economy [slate.com], where technological advances do not filter down and only serve to deepen the inequality both within a countries population and between countries [wikipedia.org]. Your stand on the environment one way or the other has nothing to do with that...
** in some areas
Re:I've been toying with Solar desal for awhile. (Score:5, Informative)
Something I have struggled with is a solar tracker that would allow a mirror to stayed focused on a water pipe to heat it to near steam to accelerate the evaporation. Something that does not actually require elctro-mechanical input.
Have you considered a solar trough [wikipedia.org]?
You can get the sun's elevation [sunearthtools.com] and adjust the angle of your trough once every 3-4 days; after all, your pipe is not going to be a hit-or-miss-thread so doesn't need to stay exactly in the parabola focus.
Re:fertilizer? (Score:4, Informative)
It was sponsored by a fertiliser company.
Re:Why those vegetables? (Score:4, Informative)
. . . because you can make a popular Middle East meal with them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%B0mam_bay%C4%B1ld%C4%B1 [wikipedia.org]
Re:That yield seems very high. (Score:2, Informative)
Vegtables like tomatoes in greenhouses can be very productive. Here in the Netherlands, they get 42 kg/m2 per year, which is 420 metric tonne per hectare. This is pretty advanced stuff though, In Almeria, Spain, the other big Greenhouse concentration in Europe they get about 10-12 kg/m2, a lot less.
Source:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/cv284
Re:Economics (Score:4, Informative)