Can India's Thar Desert Grow Crops the Sahara Way?

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Delhi, India)--As Qatar produces the first harvest of cucumber at the Sahara Forest Project in its barren desert land near Doha, countries with vast desert areas are mulling the replication of Qatar's model to produce food, water and energy in those areas by utilizing the state-of-the-art environmental solutions under controlled conditions.

The Sahara Forest Project demonstration facility, located near Doha, makes use of concentrated solar power to desalinate saltwater, which is then driven to the greenhouse where plants are grown. There is a parabolic trough row that meets this task and generates heat, especially in the winter, to keep the greenhouse warm.

India has more than 200,000 square kilometers of desert land in its northwestern areas. Running along the Indo-Pakistani border, India's lone desert, Thar, forms a natural boundary between the two countries. Only a small patch of the vast desert land is cultivatable, where small shrubs and herbs grow. The framers in the region strongly depend on rain water for growing only a small variety of spices. Replicating the Sahara model, the barren land of Thar Desert could also be utilized to produce cereals, vegetables and major crops.

The western Indian state of Rajasthan, which houses the bulk of the Thar Desert, currently has an installed solar generation base of merely 2 gigawatts (GW), with the potential to increase production to more than 20 GW. Thar covers about 60% of the total area of the state. As the area has low rainfall, Rajasthan receives solar radiation of 6 to 7 kilowatt-hours per square meter for about 325 days per year.

With an ever-increasing demand for food and shrinking agricultural land, India is facing a major challenge in ensuring the food security for the world's second-most populous nation. The adoption of such a sustainable and integrated energy-agricultural model could help India in meeting its primary needs.

In 2011, the Sahara Forest Project AS entered into cooperation with Yara International ASA (YAR:OL) (Oslo, Norway), the world's largest supplier of fertilizer, and Qatar Fertiliser Company (Qafco) (Doha, Qatar), the world's largest single-site producer of urea and ammonia.

After successfully completing a comprehensive feasibility study on Qatar, the parties signed an agreement to build the first fully operational Sahara Forest Project pilot plant in Qatar. The implementation agreement was signed in February 2012 by Prime Minister of Norway Jens Stoltenberg and Prime Minister of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani. After an intense construction period, the Sahara Forest Project Facility became operational in December 2012.

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