Technology will be able to turn barren desert land into plantations in 5 years. (Source: Indiatimes)

While desert areas are not considered profitable or capable of producing high crop yields, startup Sand To Green wants to change that.

Sand To Green co-founder and chief agricultural officer Wissal Ben Moussa told CNN that “desertification is the future of many countries today” and “our solution is to use agroforestry to create a new type of agriculture that is sustainable and resilient to climate change.”

Why is desertification a real threat? According to the United Nations, one-third of the Earth is already affected by desertification and 135 million people may be forced to leave their homes in the future because of it.

Sand To Green hopes its technology will help produce sustainable crops. With the world's population expected to reach 9.8 billion by 2050 and climate change already underway, food insecurity could become more pronounced in the coming decades.

For this system to work, brackish water is needed. Brackish water is unsafe for human consumption, and is less salty than seawater. They use solar energy to remove the salt.

Once the desalination process is complete, Sand To Green uses drip irrigation to reduce water usage by directly feeding the plant roots. Using a green manure mix, the desert soil can be regenerated and a diverse group of fruit trees and herbs are planted to ensure the system works.

The system can create biodiversity that leads to better soil, healthier plants and higher yields, Mr Moussa said. “Our cropping method can produce 1.5 times more yield and therefore generate more revenue than a monoculture plantation in the same area,” he said.

The startup has now raised $1 million in seed funding and plans to invest in a 500-hectare site after a successful trial on a 5-hectare site. Sand To Green’s technology will be suitable for arid regions of the United States, Mexico, Egypt, Senegal, Namibia, Mauritania and the Arabian Peninsula.