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.
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Posted on: March 1, 2007
Use of permaculture under salinity and drought conditions
Aid Projects, Plant Systems, Rehabilitation, Salination, Swales, Water Harvesting — by Administrator
Jordan is an arid country with limited water resources. The available renewable fresh water resources dropped drastically to an annual per capita share of 155 m3 in recent years compared to 3400 m3/cap/year in 1946. It is considered also as one of the 10 poorest countries worldwide in water resources (Countries with less than 500 m3/capita/year are regarded as having “absolute scarcity”).
In 2004, the total water use in Jordan was 866 million cubic meters (MCM) at the total population of about 5 million people. The total renewable resources in Jordan is estimated at 780 MCM include ground water at 275 MCM/year and surface water at 505 MCM/year of which only 70% is of economic use. An additional 143 MCM/year is estimated to be available from fossil aquifers. Brackish aquifers are not yet fully explored but at least 25 MCM/year is expected to be accessible for urban uses after desalination.
The demand on water use has been increased with increasing the socioeconomic development in the country. Agriculture consumes the major parts of water resources of about 62.5% of the available resources, domestic use consumes about 32.5% while industry about 4.3% and rural uses is 0.8% of the available water resources. Click for more…
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