Greening the Desert
Food Forests, Fungi, Land, Rehabilitation, Salination, Soil Biology, Swales, Trees — by Craig Mackintosh
This is just one example of how permaculture can transform the environment, and, in so doing, dramatically change lives. By evidencing the dramatic transformation possible in the world’s worst agricultural scenarios, we hope to make people stand up and listen.
Big Agribusiness would convince us that continuing with fossil fuel dependent monocrop systems and genetically modified crops is the way of the future, but with fuel, transport and fertiliser costs skyrocketing, and growing evidence that genetic tinkering is causing far more harm than good, we, instead, advocate tried and tested methods of working with nature for the benefit of man.
Below is a behind the scenes look at Greening the Desert.
I have been posting extensively on the manufacture of soils by applying biochar culture on my Blog:
http://globalwarming-arclein.blogspot.com
Been able to move abruptly to deep rooted trees and palms is an unexpected development. I had anticipated that a long restoration program would be necessary and saw the use of biochar as a nutrient management system that also possibly controlled the salinity.
Is it possible that salinity is grossly overestimated because of wicking effects? We have perfectly usable nutrient rich soils that merely need a competent water system.
regards
arclein
Comment by arclein — August 13, 2008 @ 5:56 am
Inspirational to say the least.
In the US the government declared, in 1877, that certain states with desert lands must distribute up to 640 acres per person or group for the purpose of reclaiming the desert. Several states were enlisted into this program and must distribute 1 million acres per state. Most of the people simply made watering holes and kept livestock or farmed it for a short period of time until they could prove they properly irrigated it then sold the land. It’s disgusting but so many entrepreneurs have cheated the system so far. Corporations had to be excluded because of it.
At any rate if it can work in Jordan it could Work in Arizona or Nevada and the land, if you prove you can irrigate it and reclaim at least 1/8th of it in 4 years time, can be purchased for $1.25 per acre up to 320 acres. The downfall is you have to jump through some hoops to find the right piece of land. With permaculture I think that this could be very beneficial for the land and very profitable for the farmer.
Co-op’s, especially, can benefit from this and in Nevada you don’t have to be a resident to claim land via the Desert Land Act.
Comment by Robert — August 26, 2008 @ 9:02 am
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