Jean Zeid 06:53, March 27, 2024
Every morning, Jean Zeid delivers the best in terms of innovation. This Wednesday, he is interested in a Franco-Moroccan startup which has set itself the ambition of transforming the desert into fertile soil.
This Wednesday morning, we plant trees in the desert.
And for this, I am going to tell you about a Franco-Moroccan startup which has decided to set itself the ambition of transforming the desert into fertile soil. Desertification is a concern for many countries today; we are even talking about a third of the earth's surface being threatened. The Sand to Green company wants to create a great green wall against these deserts.
How does she plan to get there?
Four principles to achieve what can still be defined as a utopia: agroforestry, intercropping, brackish water and green manure. Agroforestry is a method that integrates the cultivation of fruit trees and aromatic herbs in a single space like oases for example, and this mix is intended to boost biodiversity and resource efficiency. Intercropping, nothing to do with our schoolboy binders, is a technique which allows different species of plants to be cultivated together, optimizing space and above all increasing production. Brackish water is quite simply an abundant resource in desert areas, especially in coastal areas. Finally, “green manure” is used to regenerate the soil. As a bonus, Sand to Green uses solar technologies to desalinate seawater for use in irrigation. So much for the method.
Now the real question: does it work?
Well, yeah. Sand to Green carried out a five-year trial on an area of five hectares in southern Morocco, and they tested their four rules while seeking to identify the right variety of plants to identify those suited to this environment. The process is now, if not mastered, known: the earth must be turned over to a shallow depth to aerate it, then carry out a first regeneration crop in order to bring nitrogen back into the soil, we add compost or manure and arrives the actual planting with many plant species of different sizes. It's like an orchestra, you need a little bit of everything.
At the origin of the project, we find a Moroccan engineer graduated from AgroParisTech and two French entrepreneurs and former Sciences Po Lille and AgroParisTech who also joined forces in 2022 to set up this somewhat crazy project.
And what is the next goal for this company?
Sand to green's next goal is to expand the project to a 20-hectare site, also in southern Morocco. Techniques that the company could very quickly export to countries like Mauritania, Senegal, Namibia, Egypt, even in certain regions of the United States and on the Mexican coast. The stated goal: to regreen 10,000 hectares of desert soil by 2030.