Climate change is causing more areas to turn into deserts. This issue is affecting the lives of 250 million people as land that used to be good for farming becomes dry and unproductive. Around one-third of the world’s land is impacted, including regions in Africa, southern Europe, Asia and America.
Sand to Green is a Moroccan company that can transform a patch of desert into a sustainable (可持续的) and profitable plantation in five years, according to Wissal Ben Moussa, its co-founder and chief agricultural officer. The solution is using agroforestry (农林业)to create a new kind of agriculture that is sustainable and that can be resilient (有适应力的) in front of climate change.
The system can be set up close to any source of salty water, which Sand to Green cleans using energy from the sun. It then grows different types of fruit trees and plants together in the same area — a method called mixed planting — and waters the plants’ roots directly with the cleaned water, to reduce water loss to the air. The soil is regenerated using what Sand to Green calls “green manure”, a mixture that includes compost, biochar (生物炭) and microorganisms that help the soil “wake up”. Biochar is a form of charcoal that can help dry soil hold on to water.
In a five-hectare trial in southern Morocco that’s been running since 2017, Sand to Green has tried out a variety of plants in search of the best performers. Among the intercropping herbs (草本植物) that have been successfully trialed are rosemary, geranium, vetiver and citronella, which Ben Moussa describes as “very low-maintenance and very high-profit”.
Sand to Green is now working to scale up to a 20-hectare commercial site, also in southern Morocco. It says a site of that size would cost around $475,000 to set up and would start bringing financial returns in about five years.
According to Ben Moussa, with this system they create biodiversity, which means better soil, healthier crops and a bigger yield. The plantation can generate 1.5 times more yield, thus making more money than a farm that grows only one type of crop in the same space.
【小题1】What phenomenon does the author describe in paragraph 1?| A．Deforestation. | B．Desertification. |
| C．Global warming. | D．Urbanization. |
| A．To preserve the crop’s survival rate. |
| B．To protect water from pollution. |
| C．To make a new type of soil. |
| D．To help people adapt to climate change. |
| A．It aims to plant more trees. |
| B．It earns a good reputation. |
| C．It develops new plants. |
| D．It produces good results. |
| A．Expand. | B．Object. | C．Refer. | D．Prefer. |
