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Sand to Green is a pioneering company that is committed to creating sustainable and profitable agriculture to combat climate change.
Their innovative approach involves developing agroforestry plantations in arid regions, which promote soil regeneration, carbon capture, and water cycle restoration.
These plantations utilize solar-powered water desalination and produce food all year round while also generating carbon credits.
Sand to Green’s mission is to transform agriculture into a CO2 capture sector, helping to restore ecosystems and biodiversity while fighting climate change.
The company is paving the way for a new, environmentally friendly form of agriculture.
In this episode of Climate Tech 100, Sand to Green CEO and co-founder, Benjamin Rombaut shares with us how the company is literally transforming deserts into forests.
What inspired you to start Sand to Green and what was your journey like to get here?
I was motivated to create Sand to Green mainly for ecological considerations.
The more I read about the subject, the more I understood the magnitude of the problem, especially in agriculture, which accounts for 23% of greenhouse gas emissions.
This figure has always seemed to me to be frightening because plants and trees are supposed to capture carbon through photosynthesis, not emit it.
As my knowledge of the problems of climate change advanced, I saw solutions taking shape thanks to major technological advances, particularly in desalination, advances in research on soil improvement and the implementation of financial mechanisms such as carbon credits.
All these advances make large-scale tree planting possible in the desert, and make it one of the serious solutions to fight against this disruption.
I have always been passionate about innovation, and I have worked for several years on these “Nature Based Solutions” (NBS).
Then, my research and especially the meeting of my two associates Wissal Ben Moussa and Gautier de Carcouet, made this innovation project possible and we then created Sand to Green.
How does your approach to agriculture address the challenges of climate change, particularly in relation to greenhouse gas emissions and water scarcity?
Every year, we lose 12 to 15 million hectares of forest to agriculture, which is one soccer field every two seconds.
Indeed, in order to feed an ever growing population that consumes more and more calories, we need arable land that we take from the forests.
But we have never needed our forests so much to meet the challenges of climate change.
At Sand to Green, we are shifting the paradigm to create an agriculture that regenerates our soils, captures carbon, and restores the water cycle.
Indeed, today we have the knowledge, the technology and the financial engineering to transform drylands into arable land, and all this with a profitable business model.
To do this, we are developing agroforestry plantations (intelligent combination of trees and plants to maximize synergies and yields) in arid environments.
These oasis-like plantations are irrigated with solar-powered water desalination to recreate resilient and profitable ecosystems through food production from trees, intercropping and the emission of carbon credits.
Resilient to climate change, our plantations replenish soil, restore the water cycle and produce food year-round.
Can you tell us about some of the projects you are currently working on?
After 4 years of R&D and agronomic tests in southern Morocco, we are currently scaling up a new 20-hectare plantation in the Guelmim-Oued Noun region of Morocco, which will be completed by the end of 2023.
In parallel, we are working on a new 500ha project, also in the south of Morocco, which will be developed as a franchise this time.
Sand to Green does not intend to develop all our plantations on its own, but we want to support farmers in developing more resilient agricultural systems by providing them with knowledge, know-how and financial resources.
In order to make this knowledge and know-how accessible to all, we are in the process of condensing all our expertise into a software program.
This software for agroforestry in arid environments will allow, in the long term, the replication of this type of plantation via simple processes accessible to all.
Thus we will facilitate access to this knowledge and democratize agriculture in the desert, as a means to regenerate ecosystems and fight against climate change.
Could you tell us more about your irrigation methods, including how you desalinate sea water and brackish water, and how you minimize water loss through drip irrigation and hydro-shrinkers?
As you can imagine, water is a very scarce resource in deserts, and it is essential for the development of our plantations.
Therefore, we have implemented many methods and technologies to harvest, create and preserve this water.
First and foremost, we implement rainwater harvesting techniques to limit runoff and promote infiltration into the soil.
Then, we create fresh water from brackish water.
To do this, we use reverse osmosis machines that run on solar energy.
The brine, a hyper-saline concentrate from the desalination process, is recycled to grow halophyte plants.
Once this water is captured or created, it is necessary to make the best use of it and to conserve it.
We then use not only drip irrigation systems, but also natural hydro-retainers to improve the retention of our soils.
Finally, our agroforestry system made up of several layers of trees allows us to limit evaporation at the soil level.
How do you use data collection and management to monitor and optimize your agroforestry practices, and what kind of ecological and economic indicators do you use?
In order to improve our knowledge and agroforestry models, we are developing our nature-based solution based on data.
To do so, we multiply the data acquisition channels:
- Field data: we collect data through soil analysis, field observations and weather stations.
- Satellite data: the recovery of processed satellite images allows us to monitor soil moisture (NDMI) and vegetative growth (NDVI).
- Data from scientific research: we study the work of scientists on these subjects and work with CGIAR researchers to collect field data on other plantations around the world.
How do you balance the need to produce food and the need to preserve and restore biodiversity in your agroforestry projects?
Producing food and restoring biodiversity are not mutually exclusive, and this is even more true when cultivating deserts.
Indeed, we start with bare, eroded, compacted soils, poor in organic matter.
The diversity that was once present in these areas has disappeared as desertification has intensified.
When we design our agroforestry plantations in arid environments, comparable to oases in the middle of the desert, we aerate the soil, recreate shelter for biodiversity and an entire ecosystem necessary for their survival such as water and food.
The ability of nature to regain its rights when given a helping hand is quite surprising. On our first plantation, we quickly saw insects, birds and mammals such as hares come back.
How do you involve and train local communities in your work, particularly in areas with high food insecurity and rural exodus?
First of all, it is important to know that the regions in which we are developing are former agricultural regions.
Farming in towns, which was practiced 30 years ago, is no longer possible today because of climate change and the (almost) disappearance of rainfall.
Farmers have therefore turned to underground water tables, until this fossil resource is exhausted.
Sand to Green’s solution provides a livelihood solution to these local communities that are heavily affected by rural exodus and food insecurity.
The involvement and training of these communities is therefore essential to ensure the sustainability of our plantations.
We teach these farmers the principles of agroforestry in arid environments, which are inspired by ancestral techniques practiced in oases.
We train them on the soils and the varieties adapted and useful to this ecosystem. We build, together, new plantations for which they will be responsible.
What are some of the challenges you’ve faced in scaling up your projects, and how are you working to overcome them?
We face two main types of challenges when expanding and replicating our projects: environmental challenges and human challenges.
With desalination, we are freeing ourselves from our first environmental constraint: water.
Nevertheless, other environmental challenges arise such as the management of itinerant herds, the management of the wind (which can be very violent in these regions that no longer have any vegetation to stop it), the regeneration of the soil, etc.
For all these challenges, we favor nature-based solutions by working with many scientists to find the most appropriate solutions.
Regarding human challenges, such as training of local populations and access to land, we work hand in hand with local authorities and associations to ensure that the solutions provided are adapted to local conditions and needs.
How do you see Sand to Green evolving and expanding in the coming years, particularly in terms of new projects and technologies?
Sand to Green’s mission is to transform agriculture to not only feed the women and men of our planet, but also to use agriculture as a means to fight climate change.
To do this, we are using technology to make agriculture a carbon capture vector.
In the coming years, we will develop numerous plantations, first in Morocco, then in other African countries.
To facilitate the transition to scale, we are structuring our startup with new protocols, a more efficient software and we are developing our R&D around soil regeneration, brine management, improvement of our agroforestry model and transmission of our knowledge.
Finally, what kind of impact do you hope to have on the future of agriculture and the fight against climate change, and how do you measure and track your progress towards those goals?
The entire Sand to Green team is fighting every day to cultivate the future by demonstrating that other models of agriculture exist.
If we want to fight climate change, we absolutely must change the paradigm of agriculture.
Trees and plants are magnificent machines for capturing carbon via their photosynthesis process.
Agriculture must therefore become a CO2 capture sector, not a greenhouse gas emission sector.
We are convinced that the future of agriculture lies in the deserts, and that the development of this type of practice will allow us to restore ecosystems and biodiversity, while fighting against climate change.
With our franchise system, Sand to Green will be not only the promoter but also the leader of this new, more environmentally friendly agriculture.
Conclusion
To learn more about Sand to Green, visit https://www.sandtogreen.com/.