From salt to sustainability
Believe it or not, deserts might just be the next frontier in sustainable farming. Agriculture is under threat from extreme heat, vanishing water and salty soil – but innovators are turning these challenges into opportunities. This episode uncovers the breakthroughs keeping fertile land from turning to dust. From salt-defying crops to desert farms that thrive against the odds, meet the farmers and scientists rewriting the rules of resilience. Featuring Zied Hammami, Xenya Scanlon, Viviane Filippi and Hiba Nasrollah.
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Transcript
This is Farms. Food. Future. – a podcast that’s Good for you, Good for the Planet, and Good for Farmers. Brought to you by the International Fund for Agricultural Development.
Brian:
Welcome to episode 81, I’m Brian Thomson,
Michelle Tang:
and co-presenting this edition, I’m Michelle Tang.
Brian:
This time, we’re heading to the desert.
Michelle:
Where extreme heat and water scarcity are rewriting the rules of farming.
Brian:
We’re talking land degradation, climate resilience, and the power of innovation.
Michelle:
Because when we think of deserts, we think of dry, lifeless landscapes…
Brian:
But deserts are expanding, and fertile land is vanishing.
Michelle:
Every year, we lose 100 million hectares of productive land.
Brian:
That’s an area the size of Egypt, gone.
Michelle:
And it’s not just happening in the driest areas.
Brian 00: 58
It’s happening everywhere. Farmland turning to dust. Entire communities at risk.
Michelle::
But there’s hope.
Brian:
Real solutions. Real change.
Michelle:
And we’re bringing you the people making it happen.
Brian:
But before we speak to them, don’t forget we want to hear from you – what you think about our stories and who you want us to be talking to – so please get in touch with us at podcasts@ifad.org. You can also subscribe to this podcast via your favourite podcast platform and please don’t forget to rate us.
Michelle:
Coming up, is Xenya Scanlon from the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, UNCCD.
Brian:
You’re listening to Farms. Food. Future. with me Brian Thomson and Michelle Tang.
A returning guest on the podcast, Xenya Scanlon, is the Chief of Communications, External Relations and Partnerships at the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, known as UNCCD.
Michelle:
Their mission? To stop land degradation before it’s too late.
Brian:
And that’s never been more critical. Because we’re losing productive land at an alarming rate.
Michelle:
So, what’s being done to stop it?
Brian:
Well, our reporter, Hector Clack, caught up with Xenya after the UNCCD COP 16 in Riyadh, to find out.
Hector Clack:
Welcome Xenya to the podcast. You recently attended the UN Convention to Combat Desertification or UNCCD COP 16, in Riyadh. Could you tell us a bit about the main aims and the key messages of the event?
Xenya Scanlon: dh, Saudi Arabia, in December:
Hector:
What were some of your personal highlights from the event?
Xenya: we hope will be concluded in:
Hector:
How do you see the commitments made at COP 16 translating into tangible actions for combating desertification?
Xenya: 're looking at the next year,:
Michelle:
Thanks Xenya and Hector. If you’d like to hear more on tackling desertification, land degradation and drought from Xenya Scanlon, head to episode 51.
Brian:
And don't forget to tune in to our latest episodes. Because in episode 78 we went on a mission where no podcast has ever gone before, bringing you space innovations and out-of-this-world solutions for sustainable agriculture.
Michelle:
Then in episode 79 we launched Life Stories, a new series that takes you beyond the headlines and into the lives of the people shaping the future of farming.
Brian:
And in episode 80, we broke down the science behind extreme weather – what’s driving it and how we can adapt.
Michelle:
Coming up now, we talk solutions. Meet the scientists behind a game-changing innovation: salt-tolerant crops.
Brian:
These plants thrive where others fail, helping farmers turn barren fields into productive land.
Michelle:
You’re listening Farms. Food. Future. with me Michelle Tang and Brian Thomson.
Salt in the soil? For most farmers, that’s a death sentence.
Brian 9:30
But what if it didn’t have to be?
IFAD’s Improving Agricultural Resilience to Salinity through Development and Promotion of Pro-poor Technologies – or RESADE project for short – is tackling this issue head-on.
Michelle 9:49
As sea levels rise, soil salinity is spreading… threatening crops, food security, and livelihoods.
Brian 9:57
RESADE helps farmers fight back with water management, biochar, and salt-resilient crops.
Michelle:
So, what’s the secret behind these resilient crops?
Brian:
And how are they transforming the world’s toughest landscapes?
Michelle:
Our reporter, Rosa González, spoke to the experts.
Rosa González:
Welcome Hiba, Viviane and Zied to the podcast. So, you’re working on a fascinating project with salt-tolerant crops… and I’d first like to ask if you could tell us a bit about why the work you’re doing is so important for the farmers living in the arid regions you focus on?
Hiba Nasrollah:
Yeah, sure. Thank you, Rosa. So, good morning everyone, my name is Hiba Nasrollah. So, across the African region, soil salinisation is becoming a major threat. So, poor irrigation practices, waterlogging, over extraction of groundwater, rising sea levels and seawater intrusion are all contributing to this growing problem. Climate change is making it worse with prolonged droughts and intensifying salinity issues. So, for many communities, this means decline in agricultural productivity, increase in food insecurity and worsening poverty. So, farmers often lack the knowledge and tools needed to combat these challenges, particularly through the use of salt-tolerant crops and better land and water management practices.
So, this is where RESADE comes in and the project is delivering practical science-based solutions in seven countries in total, that can be easily adopted by farmers, including promoting efficient irrigation and drainage systems, implementing soil amendments and crop rotation techniques, as well as introducing salt-tolerant crop varieties, including sorghum, pearl millet, quinoa, cowpea, etc. But beyond these technical solutions that are delivered by ICBA, RESADE is also driving long term impact by developing value chains for newly introduced crops by ICBA, strengthening the capacity of farmers, extension workers and national research institutions, as well as advocating for climate smart and salinity resilient agriculture to be integrated in national policies.
Rosa:
That’s great, thank you Hiba. So, Zied, could you walk us through the technology being introduced to support these salt-tolerant crops?
Zied Hammami:
Thank you. Good morning, everyone, I’m doctor Zied Hammami, thank you for having me.
So, the RESADE project integrates advanced agricultural technologies and practices and all this to support the farmer in the saline prone areas facing salinity and water scarcity. We talk about water scarcity because many African regions, they suffer from economic water scarcity. And some key intervention points include the salt tolerant crop cultivation. Those varieties, they are climate smart and climate resilient crops, and this is to enhance the productivity and food security on the target region.
The RESADE project has been instrumental in providing the farmer with the knowledge, the skills to create high quality biochar. The biochar is a charcoal like material made from organic matter through pyrolysis, which means heating without oxygen. It also helps on carbon sequestration by locking the carbon in the soil for centuries and reducing the atmospheric CO2. And one of the innovative aspects of this approach is recycling the organic matter from many farms’ activities. So instead of burning or discarding this valuable resource, the farmer can turn it onto the soil through biochar or compost.
For example, for the pearl millet, using the biochar helps the farmer to increase the yield by 50 to 100%, and for sorghum crop by over 300%.
Now talking about the water management, it involves, the hardware solution, like the drip irrigation, the use of solar panels and the pumping system. And in addition to that, the precision irrigation is essential for reducing the water waste and to ensure efficient water use by delivering the water directly to the plant's roots.
Rosa:
Thank you. And are you introducing climate smart agriculture as well?
Zied:
Yes, the RESADE project has implemented smart agricultural methodologies to support the farmer in the target region. So, the RESADE is study employed satellite imagery in junction with the machine learning models to, one – assist and map the agricultural areas adversely affected by salinity in the target countries. Then we know where the salinity is inducing more problems and then to generate vulnerability maps to evaluate the extent to which the agricultural sector is at risk from extreme climate event.
Also, we use the precision agriculture by employing the IoT sensor to collect different sorts of data, including the atmospheric data collection through the weather station that we installed in all the best practice hub in all the countries, and this is to assess the crop water needs.
All this data, we integrate it in a system for data driven decision making. We analyse it to make informed agricultural choice to select, for example, the best sowing time or the irrigation requirement, how much water we need to apply for each crop, and also all the other farming practices like for fertilizer and all other parameters, because before the main challenge for most of African country is the data availability. So now we find technical solution how to have to collect data. And then we analyse, we interpret it, to generate numbers that we have to share with the farmer.
For example, to grow sorghum – sorghum is one of the crops that adapted to all the countries – the irrigation requirement can be between 450 to 650. It can reach 700mm. But using this technology, we found that the crop water requirement in Sierra Leone in a specific period, it can be only 200mm, but in the Gambian dry season it can reach 800mm. So here, by determining the crop water requirement in each country for each crop, it helps to save costs because we avoid over irrigation, saving costs because some farmers, they use different types of energy for pumping water. So here we save energy. And even for the cases, like for the RESADE project where we are utilizing solar energy to pump the water. So, the same quantity of water, by knowing the crop water requirement instead to overirrigate the crop and we lost the yield, no – that quantity we used to grow more land and to increase the land profitability at the farm level. And this was very important for the farmer and the target region.
Also, for example the use of crop model. Many people then say: why we need crop model in this area? For example, in some areas we introduce crops like sorghum, pearl millet... the crops were very well adapted, but still, in some cases, we observe that the farmer was unable to attend the optimal yield. By doing the modelling exercise and analysing the yield gap we found, for example, that wheat infestations account for 20% of yield losses in most of the West African countries. So, after that, many farm field schools were arranged to address this issue and to demonstrate and show to the farmer how to take care and maintain the field wheat-free to reach really the optimum yield that we are looking for after the introduction of the resilient crop, adapted crop, and different techniques to reach our objective for ensuring food security.
Rosa:
Fantastic. Thank you very much.
Zied:
Thank you.
Rosa:
So, we know that no project comes without its challenges. Viviane, what are some of the biggest obstacles that the project has faced and how have you adapted?
Viviane Filippi:
Encouraging farmers to adopt new crops is often met with resistance. To facilitate this transition, the RESADE project established over 35 producer cooperatives with strong participation from women and youth. These cooperatives not only help drive change but are also equipped with modern concession units and training and value-added processing.
In this way, farmers were capacitated, the productivity was not limited to the field level and also, many of the drought and salinity resilient crop varieties that were introduced by RESADE were previously uncommon in the seven target countries, and to address limited seedling availability, the project established and strengthened community seed banks. At present, RESADE supports six seed banks where seeds are collectively produced, are preserved and this way they are also fostering stronger community ties that are encouraging widespread adoption of these climate resilient crops.
The project was designed following a value chain development approach because this would have allowed technology uptake and sustainability through different pathways. First of all, we have been concentrating on facilitating market access, but also training farmers and extension workers on climate smart practices, equipment use and agricultural quality standards.
In addition to field level interventions as Hiba mentioned, the RESADE is also actively engaged in policy advocacy, and the project has conducted reviews of national water management frameworks and policies and has provided recommendations informed by ICBA’s extensive expertise in irrigation and salinity management. But, I mean, beyond the production of white papers and policy briefs, the RESADE project has also organised some high-level seminars that were designed for policymakers and decision makers precisely to promote climate smart and effective salinity management, having the direct say into those forums where policy advocacy is more likely to happen.
[MUSIC]
Brian:
Thank you Hiba, Viviane and Zied.
Michelle:
Our reporter Rosa continued the conversation with Dr. Hammami to find out more about the work of International Centre for Biosaline Agriculture, known as ICBA.
[MUSIC]
Brian:
You’re listening to episode 81 of Farms. Food. Future. with me Brian Thomson and Michelle Tang.
Extreme soil conditions don’t just threaten crops – they threaten livelihoods. But science is fighting back.
Michelle:
ICBA researchers are developing new techniques to help farmers turn problematic soil into productive land.
Brian:
Zied Hammami tells us about it.
[MUSIC]
Zied Hammami:
The International Centre for Basic Agriculture focuses on the sustainable agriculture and saline and water scarce environment through several key initiatives: the development and the promotion of climate resilient crops such as millet, quinoa, cowpea, fodder crops and many others along with sustainable management practices.
Number two the non-conventional water use including the treated wastewater, the saline water…
Number three, the climate change adaptation utilising techniques, including the remote sensing and the modelling technologies.
Number four partnership and collaboration with the international and regional partners to tackle soil salinity, water scarcity and food security issues.
Number five the capacity building by providing several trainings programmes workshops to educate farmers, researchers and policymakers on sustainable practices with the focus on empowering women and youth.
So, ICBA’s approach integrates scientific research, practical solutions and community engagement to enhance the agricultural productivity and sustainability in the very challenging environment and conditions.
Rosa:
And could you share with us a story where the ICBA has had a positive impact on the practices or livelihoods of smallholder farmers?
Zied:
Yes, sure. One of them was the innovative crop solution in Morocco, where ICBA’s quinoa varieties have shown promise, providing a resilient crop option for the challenging environment. ICBA partnered with local organizations in Morocco to support farmers, especially women, in producing and marketing quinoa-based products. And this is initiative supports and promotes the modern agriculture for combating the rural poverty strategy in Morocco.
Another example, through the RESADE project, ICBA has empowered the farmer to enhance the value of the local product. One of the examples here is the adding value over to the cooking melon in Botswana, where the farmer received a training in food processing techniques, enabling them to create a new product and open up market opportunities. And one inspiring example here is the case of one of Mrs. Ramirez, who started a business on selling juice made from watermelon and other type of melons. And this really helped the farmer to open this business and turning traditional crop into economic assets. She was able to increase her incomes by 1,000% just by applying the techniques and the technology she learned with this training.
to:
Another success story comes from the project Scaling up small-scale irrigation technologies to improve food security in sub-Saharan Africa, and it was implemented in Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali and Senegal, where ICBA evaluated many irrigation systems over 40 years and the project demonstrate that the solar powered system significantly improves the water use efficiency and crop yield.
One of the techniques, which was the California irrigation system, was particularly very successful and adapted over 50,000 hectares, reducing the water consumption by 18% for the tomato and help on tripling the farm's profit.
Rosa:
That's very inspiring, thank you very much for those stories. And given the urgent discussions at the desertification COP last year, how do you see ICBA’s work contributing to this goal?
Zied:
So, ICBA is working in different fronts, including the food and feed security, especially in saline-prone, marginal and desert environment. This help through their role in crop production, in addition to the ground cover and CO2 sequestration, to combat climate change issues and local food and feed sufficiency.
[MUSIC]
Michelle:
Thanks, Rosa and Zied.
Brian:
And that brings us to the end of this episode.
[MUSIC]
Brian:
Thanks as always to our producers and editor here in Rome, Rosa González, Francesco Manetti, Michele Galloni, Jianing Zhang, and to our reporter, Hector Clack.
Michelle:
But most of all thanks to you for listening to this episode of Farms. Food. Future. brought to you by the International Fund for Agricultural Development.
Brian:
We’ll be back in two weeks to take you on a trip to Asia and the Pacific, where changing the way people eat is transforming health and agriculture.
Michelle:
And small shifts in food are making a big impact on communities.
Brian:
And on the second Monday of May, we’re tackling a trend that’s turning expectations upside down: reverse migration.
Michelle:
People aren’t just leaving rural areas; they’re going back, and they’re building real opportunities where they once seemed impossible.
Brian and Michelle:
Stay tuned!
[MUSIC]
Brian:
This is Farms. Food. Future. – a podcast that’s Good for you, Good for the Planet, and Good for Farmers. Brought to you by the International Fund for Agricultural Development.
You can find out more about all of our stories at www.ifad.org/podcasts
Remember we want to hear from you – what you think about our stories and who you want us to be talking to – so please get in touch at podcasts@ifad.org. Send us your voice or text messages to this address and we'll be happy to play you out in the next show.
Also, don't forget to subscribe to this podcast via your favourite podcast platform and please rate us.
And once again, we'll be trying to be Good for you, Good for the Planet, and Good for Farmers. Brought to you by the International Fund for Agricultural Development.
Until then from me, Brian Thomson, and the team here at IFAD.
Thanks for listening.
