Barren Bountiful

Overcoming Qatar's Lack of Arable Land

Abdellatif Hussine, Haya Al-Rewaily, Meera Jarrar, Racha Qaddura

Problem
Limited Area of Insufficient Local Heavy Reliance on Fragile Economy &
Fertile Soil Crop-Raising Imports Food Insecurity

$43
5

Import Value (Billion USD)

4
Locally
Arable Land Sourced Food
1.83% 20% 3

Billion
2

Arid Land 1
98.17%
Imported Food
80% 0
Saudi Arabia UAE Australia India Brazil
The financial losses
Food Sourcing Countries
Fig.1 - Amount of Fertile Agricultural Land Fig.2 - Breakdown of Qatar's Food Sources Fig.3 - Qatar's Largest Food Importers Prior
incurred by Qatar as a
4
Available in Qatar (2020) 1 (2015) 2 to the Blockade 3 result of the blockade

Solution
Hydrogel Agriculture Sandponics Eco-Friendly Desalination
5 6 7

Made up of 99% water, composed of
insoluble gel polymers
Eliminates water lost by evaporation
Soil retains water and nutrients for 20x
longer than normal, but expensive
Circular system that combines a marine Semipermeable membrane purifies
ecosystem with sand for filtration seawater using a pressure gradient
Sand is made fertile by continuous Continuous water source keeps dry
nutrient supply from fish waste agricultural land quenched
Low-cost, accessible, and sustainable Low energy cost, but toxic brine remains

How Does it Work? Why Should You Use it?

Fish produce ammonia Low start-up, maintenance, and running costs

Beneficial bacteria convert ammonia into nitrates Abundant building materials

Plants consume nitrates as nutrients Low power usage, manual operation possible

Sand acts as a: Flexible scalability of system

Mechanical Filter: purifies the incoming water of dirt
Biofilter: removes pathogens and suspended solids Both root and stem crops feasible

References