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Egypt’s Dakhla Oasis
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At present 1.1 billion people lack access to clean water, nearly
all of them in developing countries. And although there seems to
be an abundance of this resource, only 2.53% of it is freshwater,
two thirds of which are locked up in glaciers and permanent snow
cover. One of the most tremendous strains on freshwater
resources is from agriculture, with irrigation of crops in hot,
dry countries accounting for 70% of all the water use in the
world.
In
an attempt to challenge this threat to sustaining life on our
planet, Egypt’s Soil, Water and Environment Research Institute
has made a call to cultivate the desert using sea water.
In
a recent study, the Institute turned barren desert into fertile
land by successfully growing crops in various types of desert
soils, using water of very high salinity for irrigation.
Muhammad
Al-Shathli, assistant researcher at the Institute, conducted the
experimental study whereby he successfully grew crops like wheat,
rice, corn and sunflower in various types of soil, including
sedimentary, sandy, and limed soils, using saline water (with a
salinity of up to 15 mmol/cm) for irrigation.
This
was achieved by:
1)
spraying crops with a solution of water and proline (an
amino acid extracted from salt-resistant plants) at a
concentration of 30 parts per million, which is equivalent to 30
milligrams per litre,
2)
providing crops with major nutrients, such as nitrogen, phosphate
and potassium, and
3)
providing conditions, such as heat and humidity, that crops
require throughout the various phases of growth.
Divine
Protection
Having
studied the genetic make-up of high salinity tolerant plants, Al-Shathli
points out that Allah (SWT) has enabled these plants to produce
the amino acid proline, which facilitates the absorption of larger
quantities of water and nutrients from the surrounding
environment. This absorption reduces the high salt concentration
that results from the deposition of salts in plant cells as a
result of vaporisation and transpiration.
The
formation of proline also prevents the breakdown of proteins
within the plants during their initial stages of growth. During
these stages, plants do not need these proteins nor can they make
use of them; in fact, the breakdown of these proteins during the
early stages could cause the plants to age rapidly and die.
After
extracting proline from salt-resistant plants, experiments were
carried out in the following two phases:
In
the first phase, seeds from salt-intolerant plants (especially
those that are highly sensitive to salt like wheat) were soaked in
a proline solution to study the effects of various salt
concentrations of the irrigation water on the sprouting rate of
these seeds.
When
the roots soaked in a water and proline amino acid solution with a
concentration of 30 milligrams per litre were irrigated with water
of a maximum salt concentration of 15 mmol/cm, it was found that
the proline reduced the accumulation of salt in the plant tissues
and thus decreased the salt's harmful effects on the growth of the
plants.
In
the second phase, sprouts were sprinkled with the proline solution
in order to examine their growth rate and their absorption of
nutrients from the soil during the plants’ growth period with
varying degrees of salinity in the irrigation water. It was
evident that plants benefited the most when the proline
concentration was 30 parts per million.
Using
Saline Groundwater
The
supervisor of the study, Dr. Samir Abdul Aziz, Professor of land
studies at the Institute, said that the importance of these
results lies in the fact that they refute a common belief among
those investing in the reclamation of desert land, which is that
the water from the springs and wells widely distributed throughout
the vast rolling deserts of the Muslim world could be suitable for
growing only specific plants that withstood high salinity, and
that projects that utilize this water for irrigation would require
major, ongoing maintenance that would be highly technical and
costly.
This
belief has led many investors to abstain from reclaiming these
lands notwithstanding the availability of groundwater. They fear
that
over-consumption
of groundwater from these wells would result in salinization of
the water to levels above those suitable for cultivation,
estimated to be around 1.5 mmol/cm, thus forming an obstacle to
realizing ambitious plans for increasing the area of cultivated
lands.
Areas
that could benefit by applying the new method include the vast
areas of Egypt’s Eastern Desert situated behind Cairo’s Al-Muqattam
Mountain that extend along the Red Sea coastlines to the middle of
Upper Egypt in the Al Minia and Assyut governorates. The plains in
the Al-Fayyum depression that surround the Qaroon Lake, the Al
Dakhla and Al Kharga oases, and other similar oases throughout the
world are other areas that would benefit. All these areas
can be transformed into farmlands that produce wheat, rice, corn,
sunflower and other staple crops.
Irrigation
With Seawater
The
study’s co-supervisor, Muhammad Al-Said Ali, Professor of land
studies at the Faculty of Agriculture in Mushtohor in the Al
Sharqiya Governorate of Egypt, states that the application of this
new method could enable the cultivation of plains that run along
the coast and are far from the rainfall regions or do not have
enough fresh water resources for irrigation.
Ali
explains that the salt concentration of seawater, which ranges
between 35 - 45 mmol/cm, could be reduced to 15 mmol/cm by mixing
the seawater with less salty water or with fresh water. This would
make possible the use of seawater for irrigating crops after
treating them with proline, thus paving the way to cultivating
massive desert areas that stretch along coastlines.
Using
seawater would also largely increase water resources available for
irrigation purposes in countries whose freshwater resources do not
meet their irrigational requirements, such as Egypt, Syria and
Iraq. This increase can be achieved at a minimum cost, compared to
the very expensive process of desalination, which is hundreds of
time higher.
Producing
Proline Locally
The
study also shows that treating plants with proline -- no matter
how high the concentration – has no negative impacts on the
taste, shape, natural characteristics of the plants or on their
nutritious value. Proline treatment also does not have adverse
health effects neither on the animals that feed on treated plants
nor on humans who eat them, or partake in the cultivation of these
plants or handle them in the production and manufacturing
processes.
For
economic reasons, however, it is recommended that the proline
concentration not exceed 30 parts per million: the study has
proven that the benefit that plants gain from proline treatment
decreases if the proline concentration is increased above this
level.
The
high cost of importing proline, which could reach one U.S. dollar
per gram, could deprive poor countries from benefiting from it, as
cultivating an acre of land would require about 50 grams of
proline. Thus, it is important that proline be produced locally by
extracting it from high salinity tolerant plants that are
available in local environments.
Sources:
Medhat
Al-Azhari is an Egyptian freelance journalist based in Cairo. Comments and suggestions may be forwarded to him by contacting the editor at
ScienceTech@islam-online.net
