Over one-third of the global land surface, deserts are characterized by little to no rainfall, poor and sandy soil, extreme temperatures, scorching winds, little water catchment potential, and almost complete reliance on often non-renewable groundwater.

Yet, the sustainability of vulnerable desert agriculture is gravely threatened by several combined factors, that form a perfect storm situation. Climate change, population pressures, inappropriate land management practices, extreme temperatures, low soil fertility, limited availability of organic matter, water scarcity and salinity, wind erosion, high evaporation rates, and isolation from energy sources and markets are all factors that combine to form a bleak outlook for the farmers who live there.

But despite these threats, decades of research and technological development have meant that desert agriculture is no longer confined to isolated patches such as oases and has made great strides forward.

In many places, agriculture has expanded to marginal and degraded desert lands that were previously considered unfit for food production.

Yet, deserts are a source of livelihood for millions of people. But the food systems and agrobiodiversity of deserts are under threat. We at M/s. FUTURA FARMTECH SOLUTIONS has innovated state of art technologies to do automated AIOT-based desert farming.

M/s. FUTURA FARMTECH SOLUTIONS helps design, promote, execute, and scale out INNOVATIVE AIOT DESERT FARMING SYSTEMS (IADFS) that combine nature-based solutions and appropriate AIOT-based innovative farming technologies to transform desert agriculture systematically and sustainably. Many innovative technologies will be used in desert environments, such as automated greenhouses, hydroponics, aeroponics, and aquaponics, along with Land-based micro/drip irrigation, fertigation, and chemigation systems, which will increase the productivity of crops while greatly decreasing the water and energy use.

M/s FUTURA FARMTECH SOLUTIONS, by integrating and executing these state-of-art technologies along with local knowledge, thereby including stakeholders from the public sector, the private sector, the value chain, and the farmers themselves hope to create profitable farming communities and professional super-intensive farms in the Middle Eastern countries.

Forty-four percent of the world’s food, including half its livestock, is produced in dry areas. Of the 2.7 billion people that live in the drylands, it is estimated that about 40 million live in deserts that typically receive under 100mm of rainfall a year.

The leap in desert agriculture is largely due to an effective portfolio of protected agriculture technology and the latest AIOT automated agro-practices developed by research centers like M/s. FUTUTA FARMTECH SOLUTIONS, INTERNATIONAL CROPS RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR THE SEMI-ARID TROPICS (ICRISAT), India etc.

The breakthroughs in desalination technology, renewable energy (particularly solar), water-saving technology, greenhouse systems, and alternative feed industries enable food production in the most barren soil, under the harshest conditions.

The expansion of desert farming, which encompasses horticulture production, date palms, irrigated forages, rangeland rehabilitation, protected agriculture, livestock, and fish production, has also been spurred by the willingness of many countries, states, and governments to create supportive policies that encourage desert farming to help reduce their reliance on food imports, and to promote added-value products for export such as organic produce.

Many components interact within this system, and facilitation mechanisms among these components build resilience and efficiency. These can be straightforward, such as planting trees to reduce soil erosion by winds, as well as crops’ evapotranspiration. Or they can be more complex such as introducing the concept of circular economies to recycle the nutrients between fish, crops, livestock, and soil.

M/s. FUTURA FARMTECH SOLUTIONS integrates different technologies, including activities at the farm and community levels, to create additional synergies like reducing water and energy use. M/s. FUTURA FARMTECH SOLUTIONS also combine objectives of job creation, nutrition, and resilient livelihoods with improved value chains and better social policies that encourage and facilitate the inclusion of women, youth, and displaced communities.