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Abstract
One way to encourage agricultural self-sufficiency in arid regions is to increase the productivity of conventional freshwater agriculture. Another way is to develop and implement novel strategies and technologies that do not deplete scarce freshwater. Here we describe several options for countries in the Gulf region to increase their agricultural production by taking advantage of a lesser used resource—marginal water. Marginal water can be treated sewage effluent, produced oilfield water, brackish groundwater or seawater. We describe how this resource can be used to grow salt-tolerant forage crops, microalgae and aquaculture crops. Policies needed to implement and/or scale-up such practices are also outlined.
Highlights
As a result of the arid/hyper-arid climatic conditions, the majority of the area of the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries (GCC—Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE) is beset by a lack of freshwater resources
The dicot halophytes accumulate salt in their tissues, are succulent and tend to have high nitrogen content. These plants often have low biomass production when grown under extensive arid conditions [60] but this has been reported to increase to 20 t DM/ha under seawater irrigation for the oilseed halophyte Salicornia bigelovii [31]
Energy subsidies account for over 8.5% of the GDP and 22% of public spending in the GCC region [122]. Reducing these subsidies can free up resources that can be invested in promoting alternative food production systems such as saline agriculture or the cultivation of microalgae
Summary
As a result of the arid/hyper-arid climatic conditions, the majority of the area of the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries (GCC—Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE) is beset by a lack of freshwater resources This lack of freshwater is an obvious constraint to development of conventional agriculture in this region. Sustainable local agriculture of some type needs to be developed or enhanced in order to provide some level of self-sufficiency using crops suitable for the desert climate [5] Another way forward would be to try to make use of marginal or underutilized water sources. TSE represents a useful water resource but systems need to be monitored to ensure that concentrations of heavy metals and salts are not becoming a problem
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