Counterdesertification Crop Production

Summary of Proposal

Problem: Over two billion of the world's 7.8 billion people are food insecure and nutrient deficient.

Solution: Using innovative development of available water resources sufficient water can be provided to subsurface, micro-drip irrigate abundant, healthful food crops on desert lands (one-third of all land).

Positive Changes: 1) Adequate foods may be produced for the 720 million desert inhabitants experiencing sustained hunger;  2) Extra food crops may be grown for export to nearby areas where populations have food insecurity; and 3) Extensive crop production on large areas of desert lands will provide massive amounts of globally beneficial carbon sequestration.

Sustained hunger for desert dwelling populations often causes anger and frustration among the 720 million people concerned resulting in frequent armed conflicts and/or support for local terrorist groups. The nations of Somalia, Yemen, and Sudan provide current examples of this problem that is an indirect threat to U.S. national security.

The immediate problem being addresses by applicant's counterdesertification project in a desert area of Kenya to solve that nation's food insecurity. At the same time, this project will counter current armed attacks by Islamic radical terrorists known as al-Shabaab (from Somalia). These terrorists are using the prolonged hunger of Kenyan tribes to gain support for their terrorist acts.

Kenya is about 80 percent desert and the other 20 percent has periodic periods of drought that greatly limits crop production. At times, over half of Kenya's population of nearly 54 million must depend on food aid. The national security of Kenya, at times, is totally dependent on finding enough food to sustain its population.   

Applicant's (NPI's) counterdesertification crop production is based on several improvements and innovations to the very successful Thar Desert project, in NW India, using early counterdesertification means to grow crops on desert lands.  The proposed project uses the following NPI technologies:

1) Innovative development of available water resources to support year-long, subsurface, micro-drip irrigation of large areas of desert crops;

2) Use of natural and artificial ground covers as well as windbreaks to stop blowing sand;

3) Improvement of sand/ soil fertility by the addition of biochar that is bioactivated with soil microbes, plus the addition of sand-filtered livestock manure effluent to irrigation water;

4) Planting of a mix of arid region food, feed, forage, fiber, niche, tree, algal, and green-energy crops in a symbiotic arrangement;

5) Development of forage improvement areas, with stock-water tanks added, to facilitate the intensive, rotational grazing of livestock and wildlife displaced from areas of the above said crops; 

6) Creation of security systems to protect all the above from any threats; and

7) Establishment of secure, green-constructed, solar-zeolite cooled, rest-houses with kitchens, dinning, common areas, and sleeping quarters for the desert-area labor and security forces.

N.B. NPI's demonstration of said technology will be in Kenya. 

The initial target population is Kenya's Turkana tribe residing in a large desert area east of Lake Turkana (a large freshwater lake in Kenya). This is a mostly pastoral tribe with a few irrigated smallholder farms near Lake Turkana. They have urgent needs to produce more food crops to achieve food security, while also growing more forage for livestock grazed on desert land with very limited forage. NPI's proposed project will meet both these needs. The Project Director, for this effort, Gacii Waciuma (a native Kenyan) has been in direct contact with leaders of the Turkana tribe to discuss tribal needs and the subject solution. In addition there have been discussions on possible ways to improve area security to help protect against attacks by al-Shabaab terrorists (as previously described).  

The subject challenge is focused on food security for food insecure populations. NPI's proposed solution will help solve this problem for the estimated 720 million desert dwellers, worldwide, who are known to be food insecure and nutrient deficient (U.N. data). Counterdesertification means created and perfected, by NPI, will grow crops sufficient to provide foods for this population as well as providing large quantities of food exports to peoples living near deserts who are food insecure.  Supplemental project benefits include large-scale carbon sequestration and reduction of desert area armed conflicts often caused by extreme hunger issues.     

Counterdesertification was first successfully demonstrated by the GOI (Govt. of India) in the Thar desert of NW India. Intensive, rotational grazing of large livestock herds, a part of counterdesertification, was developed and proven by Allan Savory, in Africa. Applicant (NPI) added to such means and created other innovations to greatly improve the counterdesertification process. One of NPI's additions is tubal-algalculture or the growing of algal crops on desert lands using tubes to deter loss of water by evaporation as well as recycling of algal production water after each algal harvest. Such tube systems are also designed to act as windbreaks to reduce blowing of sand. Algal lipids grown may be used to produce biofuels and algal solids provide high protein food/ feed supplements plus an array of valuable algal products. It is such innovative and proprietary technologies that makes NPI's system unique.   

NPI's core technologies for desert crop production (via counterdesertification) are as previously outlined. The research staff at NPI developed and tested all these new technologies starting in 1995 with grant funding from USDA, USDOE, National Science Foundation, NC Biotechnology Center, and many others. Engineering support was provided by Pfeifer Guard-All and Hays Engineering with university research partners; e.g. NC State & Duke Universities. Overall, NPI will be presenting and demonstrating a new, unique agricultural business model for growing crops on desert lands.   

The initial counterdesertification were proven by the Govt. of India via its counterdesertification project in the Thar Desert of NW India. There are a number of articles on this project posted on Google. Use of livestock herds for one aspect of counterdesertification was developed and tested in Africa by Allan Savory.  Allan has posted a You Tube video presentation of his subject counterdesertification efforts.  The Chinese Academy of Sciences (PR China) has, and is, undertaking counterdesertification research. Early effort have been on growing Facai (Fa Cai) as a desert cover crop. This plant is an arid region algae that obtains needed moisture from the humidity in night skies over desert lands. Facai produces its own nitrogen to speed growth and is harvested for consumption as a vegetable-type crop grown on Chinese deserts. NPI assisted said Chinese Academy with its Facai research.  (N.B. There are several You Tube videos posted on assorted counterdesertification research.) 

NPI's theory of change is based on the proven fact that food insecure peoples will accept and use new methods of food crop production if offered.  This fact was confirmed via prior projects to include our Team Leader's (Nuttle's) agriculture and food security projects in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and the U.S. for over five decades. Interviews with the initial target tribe, the Turkana of Kenya, confirm that the activities proposed, known outputs, and probable outcomes are valid as indicated herein. 

NPI's counterdesertification demonstration and expected replications thereof is estimated to serve some 43,200 nutrient deficient people in the first year and over 840,000 nutrient deficient people within five years. Subject project is yet to start, so there are no people currently being served.

NPI will invite all interested parties to replicate its counterdesertification project, in Kenya, to help grow crops to provide foods for the estimated 720,000 food insecure, nutrient deficient populations living on desert lands. Such entities shall include NGOs, USAID, World Bank, U.N. FAO, the IsDB (Islamic Development Bank), assorted government agencies from desert nations, potential investors, and others.  Counterdesertification is expected to be highly profitable and a number of investment groups may help replicate this technology.  As noted above, NPI expects its subject technology to help provide food security for 840,000 nutrient deficient populations within the next five years.

Counterdesertification project starts are somewhat expensive and require very substantial funding from USAID, U.N. FAO, the World Bank, IsDB, and/or government entities until proven profit potential attracts sufficient investors.  The only other known barrier is the lack of adequate project security due to threats from criminal, terrorist, and/or insurgent groups. NPI will work with friendly local security forces to help resolve security threats as they occur and on an individual basis.

NPI will quickly document the profit potential of counterdesertification projects to attract the numbers of investors needed to fund subject projects in all desert areas, worldwide.

Civic action programs to assist target populations will be used to help remove all local support for criminal, terrorist, or insurgent elements threatening any one counterdesertification project. NPI's Team Leader (Nuttle) is considered to be a skilled practitioner of such civic action efforts. As an example, he wrote and published the "Civic Action Field Guide," used so effectively by U.S. Marines to defeat communist terrorists during the Vietnam War. A copy of this Guide is posted as a topic on the upper right of NPI's website (www. needfulprovision.org).   

NPI's project team includes 3 full-time staff in the U.S. and 2 full-time staff in Kenya. N.B. One of the Kenyan staff, Gacii Waciuma, recently died of natural causes and will soon be replaced.

David A. Nuttle, NPI's founder & CEO as well as Project Team Leader, has a farming background, BS degree in Agriculture, advanced training in tropical, desert, urban, and greenhouse farming, is a published author & inventor in the sustainable agriculture area, and has over five decades of agricultural development experience in Africa (including Kenya), Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and the U.S. Nuttle is the inventor of all the technologies used for subject project. In 2019, Kansas State University named Nuttle as its very Distinguished Agricultural Alumni. Nuttle has several other national and international honors to include The Thomas Jefferson Award for Humanitarian Service. A number of his successful projects are the subjects of studies, magazine articles, project reviews, and books such as "Vietnam's High Ground<" by J.P. Harris (a distinguished historian).

Linda C. Ehrlich, Ph.D. Botany, has worked with Nuttle since 1986 on assorted research and agricultural development projects. Their joint per reviewed Ag research efforts were funded by USDA, USDOE, National Science Foundation, NC Biotechnology Center, and others. Dr. Ehrlich assisted in the development of tubal-algalculture technology to be used in support of subject project.

N.B. Other NPI team members have similar strengths and special skills that will help NPI deliver the promised hunger solution. 

The University of Embu, Embu, Kenya, will assist in project implementation. Engineering support for NPI's proposed effort will be provided by Hays Engineering and Pfeifer Guard-All. Any security issues will be resolved by work with the GOK's (Govt. of Kenya's) Ministry of Defense.  Other partners may be invited as needed and overall project funding is expected from the World Bank.

NPI's business model is based on crop production in desert areas (one-third of all land) to provide affordable and healthful foods to food insecure & nutrient deficient desert-dwelling populations (about 720 million people total).  Since most of these potential customers are impoverished and lack cash or credit, barter trade will be employed to provide these populations with needed foods.  Hungry people will seek to acquire the foods they need and most have trade items of some type to do so. An example trade item would be Myrrh resin (a very valuable commodity) collected from desert Myrrh trees typical of may desert areas. As these populations use the project's counterdesertification means to produce surplus crops, they will grow surplus crops that may be sold for cash to nearby food buyers or area food markets. 

Solve offers a good opportunity to promote NPI's counterdesertification technologies and what they offer to help solve the global food crisis.

NPI seeks a venture capital partner to help sell counterdesertification profit potential to prospective investors.

NPI is willing to consider any papartnership arrangement that could benefit subject project. 

A number of refugees from Sudan are now coming into NPI's proposed project area in northern Kenya. These refugees are escaping the armed conflict in Sudan and need help to relocate as well as survive in Kenya. NPI would seek to assist such refugees using The Andan Prize.

For African tribes, such as the Turkana stakeholders in NPI's project, the women do most of the farming.  NPI would use subject prize to train the Turkana women in counterdesertification farming.