DAMMAM, 17 November 2006 — Breakthrough technology that could reduce agricultural water consumption by 40 percent while increasing crop yield by 40 percent is undergoing trials at King Fahd University for Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM). Early pre-trials have been completed and the new trials, under strictly controlled experimental conditions, began this week.
“Preliminary results from the pre-trials are very encouraging,” said Dr. Walid A. Abdurrahman, head of the Water Section in the Center for Environment & Water at the KFUPM Research Center and one of the members of the team conducting the tests. “It is early days yet and we will be able to see the full potential when we move to the field trials under commercial farm conditions.”
The innovative technique was developed by UK’s Dr. Owen Goldring and brought to Saudi Arabia when businessman Abdullah A. Bugshan realized the potential value to agriculture in the Kingdom’s arid conditions. Having guaranteed the seed finance to promote the research program, Bugshan approached KFUPM where a plot of land was set aside for the construction of a greenhouse and infrastructure to support the experiment.
Dr. Owen was impressed by the response from Dr. Abdurrahman and KFUPM. “They got behind this straight away,” he said, indicating the project’s meticulously laid-out green house and computer-controlled water monitoring and growth recording systems. “Frankly, there could not be a better place to conduct this experiment. The combination of arid conditions and a world-class research facility to provide us with all the back-up we could possibly need is unique in my experience.”
The technique is being kept secret for commercial reasons but Dr. Owen was able to describe in general terms what it involves. He said that by using a combination of very inexpensive and environmentally neutral chemicals in a new way, it was possible to alter the composition of soils. The problem with sand or sand-loam soils is that they had very low water retention. “By altering the structure of the soil and introducing water in a form that does not trickle down by gravity or evaporate from being exposed to the sun,” he said, “we can keep it at a level where plant roots can reach it and benefit from it for extended periods.”
The technique, said Dr. Abdurrahman, resulted in frequency of irrigation being reduced from daily to seven or even 10-day intervals. Results from tests conducted up to now show that the technique also allows plants to be irrigated with water having a saline content of up to 3,000 parts per million. This would render areas currently written off as unusable for agriculture to be used productively and reduce pressure on rapidly diminishing freshwater aquifers. “The savings on agricultural water will be enormous if this technique works as we expect it to,” he said.
The savings on water would be of incalculable value to Saudi Arabia. Ninety percent of water used in the Kingdom is used for agriculture and almost all of that comes from aquifers that are being depleted much faster than their recharge rates.
Added to that, some 40 percent of water applied to crops evaporates before it can reach their roots — either because of inefficient application through sprays or from heat from the sun.
By trapping water underground at a level that roots can easily access it, the new technique insulates the water-laden layer against the worst effects of the sun making it available for extended periods and results in less water used for agriculture.
That would be a real boon for the Kingdom and other arid areas. The Kingdom’s underground aquifers which provide most of the water for agriculture — a very small percentage is recycled waste water and almost no fresh desalinated water — are being depleted at a rate anything between 15 and 50 times their replenishment rate. Any reduction in the rate of extraction of the finite amounts of water in reserve subsequently increases the relative rate of replenishment.
Given that Riyadh for example relies heavily on groundwater for domestic and industrial use and that it competes with farms supplying the city with food for the groundwater, which would in a real sense benefit the city.
Dr. Owen said that the technique, because it was so cheap and simple to use, allows the special combination of substances to be mixed in very simple machinery or even by hand. It can, therefore, be exported to drought and famine-ridden countries or areas with brackish groundwater and a low level of technological development. It could introduce reliable agriculture where it is not now possible. That, he pointed out, would result in less dependency on famine relief and would kick-start local social development.
