By the year 2050 human population will increase by 3 billion, from this huge estimated increase in human population even a layman can predict the ever growing food demand. There are proposed designs to overcome this rising demand i.e. Vertical farming, but it requires lot of money to implement and we already have billions of people living under poverty line.
The U.A.E, Qatar and Kuwait are handling this futuristic DEMAND problem in a total new way. Apart from lavish urban cities these countries have lot of spare land in form deserts. The underway project is transformation of their deserts into fertile farmlands by utilizing a mixture of microbes and soil called ‘Mycorrhiza’ – a symbiotic association between fungus and roots of vascular plants – which helps to get more nutrients absorbed. Research is underway to mark areas with significant amount of water, fertile soil and harnessing mycorrhiza.
These Persian Gulf states have already found some 200,000 hectares for agriculture, which is not enough to fulfill their 100% food needs but will increase their food production by 70%. And without wasting a second everyone should go futuristic this way and contribute as much as they can.
Are there any known long term side effects of turning desert into farmland, though? I mean, desert regions are desert for a reason. Is this contradiction going to cost us in the long run?