Breathable Sand

Enabling the Middle East's sustainable transformation

Chandra Dake, founder, Dake Rechsand, outlines strategies for water conservation and efficient food systems in the Middle East.

AT THE RECENT COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, governments promised to boost efforts to achieve environmental sustainability, in response to the increasing climate change impacts such as droughts, hurricanes, and wildfires. However, commitment to climate promises does not just require the availability of plans to switch to clean energy and reduce emissions, it also requires the existence of methods to do so. And achieving efficient food systems and conserving water are pivotal to this sustainable transformation. Many countries are making a variety of efforts in the field of environmental preservation, with Saudi Arabia and the UAE leading the way in taking concrete steps towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). Today, with food scarcity set to deepen with pandemicrelated disruptions, the need to align climate actions with the agricultural sector is greater than ever.

Establishing the priorities

Transitioning to lowcarbon agricultural practices and optimising the value chains in the region will be significant for establishing climateresilient food systems. Plausible solutions must touch upon reducing GHG emissions, saving water, retaining the supplied water, and improving the ecology. To this end, many nations are exploring climatesmart water management, policy reforms, and effective demandsupply allocation mechanisms. Such actions are being prioritised by nations such as Jordan, where the pandemic has aggravated water scarcity and led to high demand and costs.

Restorative agriculture

Restorative agriculture, defined as the reclamation of degraded land by developing green cover, has the potential to create land suitable for food production. This strategy posits permaculture and food forests as potential solutions for land remediation in deserts. Breathable Sand, which finds application in waterefficient desert farming, could enable synergistic systems such as food forests. In the long run, such models could help meet the food requirements of the local population, which is set to increase. In the meantime, the increased green cover could add to carbon sequestration and help mitigate climate change.

Desert farming

Innovative solutions such as Breathable Sand are fitforpurpose in desert farming, which requires addressing a host of geographical and climatic deterrents such as seepage, high evaporation, salinity, etc. Thanks to its air permeability and water retention properties, Breathable Sand enables practitioners to conserve up to 80% of water compared to conventional farming and simultaneously unlock high agricultural productivity due to optimal nutrient supply to the roots.

Dake Rechsand ’s breathable sand technology that transforms barren desert sand into highyield, arable land, along with its signature IDER waterharvesting range, is empowering desert farming and water conservation.

The efficiency, resilience, and productivity of the agriculture sector and food systems have substantial social, economic, and political correlations. And with increasing consensus for sustainability and climate actions, as evident from the recently concluded COP26, stakes have been raised. So, the MENA region, with its longstanding food and water woes, must ramp up its efforts by adopting plausible techdriven solutions. The rate of adoption could define the course of its future. ■