Farming in dry areas
Farming in dry areas
I believe that I found these in Egypt, but I am not 100% sure. Some times I get lost looking for cool places and end up in random places!
That is in Saudi Arabia. Not that far from the border with Jordan.
GPS 30.0095403, 38.3257591
Those are mostly alfalfa fields that Saudi decided to use a fossil aquifer to water. Their wells are running dry and which is why there is so many abandoned fields. These are areas they don't have enough water. It's mixed in with date palms now as well.
Dude... did you just recognize this? how did you know? I took these pictures when I also took some pictures of Egypt and didn't even notice that I had drifted so far away, when I found these fields!
I am speechless!
It's a very distinctive area from the pictures. It also helps that I have been there.
1:10 do not recommend a visit - too hot, no booze, mediocre food, and everyone smokes way too much. The oppressive culture isn't that great either.
And now they are growing alfalfa in California if all places to export to Saudi Arabia
It's the same throughout Arizona and there's a great smarter everyday on YouTube about this kind of irrigation.
Worth the watch and believe it or not Saudi is also buying alfalfa from Arizona too. Maybe the single worst water decision I can think of..
Are we certain these aren’t lithium extraction pools? Based on the color and variation in color between them and the fact that they’re in the desert, it could be a lithium mine.
Edit: oh some of them are multicolored. Hmm…
Not sure what lithium pool look like, but this is called center-pivot irrigation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center-pivot_irrigation, and it’s how crops are typically done in the desert where there is no river or canal to pull from. Water is piped from wherever, or drawn up from a well and pumped into the irrigation arm. It’s on wheels and slowly rotates around the point where water is being pumped in. I see these all the time in southern Arizona and California deserts.
You can also see them in Minnesota
https://www.google.com/maps/@46.8353399,-94.9500685,12z/data=!3m1!1e3
Southern Idaho too
The images are in 4K so you can zoom in quite a lot. I think some of the discolorations is down to maybe clouds getting in the way?
I'm pretty sure its farms though https://maps.app.goo.gl/FHveJiWGL8SoHjkD6
They have very clear crop lines, that seems good evidence for OPs assessment.
Colorado has these too
Where do they get the water from?
Usually every source possible. A lot of the time it's non regenerative groundwater.
I guess maybe it's about getting as much as possible out of the little water that they have. Just changed the title to "dry areas" instead of actual deserts
Good job gridding out those farms in the middle of an empty fucking desert.
in the middle of an empty [...] desert.
But there's the thing: It's all desert. And people still need to eat. They're using groundwater, here, and it was adequate. Decisions taken in that time period were good decisions.
Now it's changing. And just like California Almond farmers need to seriously switch to a crop that isn't at the heart of the water wars, Saudis need to switch to methods and crops that use miniscule amounts of water.
This is really fascinating, in Denmark a lot of the potatoes in the shops are all of a sudden coming from Egypt. Especially early in the season before any of the European potatoes are ready , and especially this year which is apperantly a bad potatoes harvest here (both too wet and too dry).
These Egyptian potatoes are also very clean like they have been grown in desert sand. I'm wondering what they're using as nutrient source , some of them claim to be organic so I guess no artificial fertilisers?
Would this eventually turn the desert green again when these fields are abondend when pests and weeds take hold? I guess after they stop pumping water there might be a chance if there are enough stuff growing to hang onto some moisture form the air. ( more likely all the nutrients will be washed or blown away)
It indeed is interesting! I went back and took some pictures where they fields are not quite as visible. I don't know if these are new fields, or abandoned.
