Abstract
Agriculture is a major source of livelihood for many rural communities in the
Middle East, despite the severe lack of freshwater that affects the region. Brackish groundwater
aquifers are often exploited as sources of irrigation water, but the practice is highly unsustainable,
as large volumes of water are needed to leach the salts from the soil. The ongoing AGRISOL
project aims at designing, developing and testing a cost-effective desalination system for
application at farm-scale to the production of irrigation water and high value crops in semi-arid
environments. The AGRISOL project aims at advancing more sustainable, high-technology
farming practices by developing a cost-effective desalination system for application at farm-scale
to the production of irrigation water and high value crops in semi-arid environments and
experimentally testing its potential to (1) reduce the current rates of groundwater abstraction, (2)
increase current agricultural yields, and (3) enhance farmers' overall wellbeing by enlarging their
currently available portfolio to cash crops with low salinity tolerance.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | 3rd International Congress on Water, Waste and Energy Management |
Number of pages | 4 |
State | Published - 2016 |
Keywords
- Arid agriculture
- Brackish water
- Nanofiltration membranes
- Renewable energy
- Solar desalination
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Water Science and Technology
- Ocean Engineering
- Pollution