Spray-on Soil to Make Deserts Green? It’s True!
- Natasha Spencer-Jolliffe
- 10 hours ago
- 7 min read
How Liquid Nanoclay Can Help Turn Sandy Lands into Fertile Farmland
The Earth’s massive deserts, and their persistent efforts to keep swallowing up nearby lands, have long been the bane of farmers and agriculture. Desert sands blow away, are impossible to shape, and retain no moisture.
But the barrenness of the deserts may finally be coming to an end. Nanotechnologies are emerging to turn desert sand into a rich, nutritional soil that can be compacted, hold water, and become suitable to grow crops.
These technologies offer hope that the world’s deserts—the second largest land biome after forests—can eventually be made fertile and filled with life.
Desertification Still Spreading
The twin problems of soil loss and soil degradation are continuing to impede human and environmental flourishing.
According to the United Nations, 12 million hectares of fertile land are lost to desertification each year, representing an annual $490 billion loss to the global economy. Researchers further estimate that 52% of agricultural land today is degraded. Taken together, desertification and soil degradation are linked to increased water consumption—especially in areas where water is already scarce.
Extreme water scarcity is a reality for 4 billion people worldwide for at least one month of the year, while 30 million acres of US cropland have been abandoned since the 1980s, mostly due to groundwater depletion from pumping and droughts.
Yet, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization says feeding Earth’s growing population will demand a 70% increase in food production by 2050, putting even more pressure on vital water resources.
Agriculture and food production already consume more than 70% of all available freshwater. “That is not sustainable,” Jason White, director of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station and an expert on degraded soils, told The Earth & I.
Rejuvenating Desert Sand
Addressing these challenges led the founders of Norwegian AgTech startup and nanotechnology innovator, Desert Control, to explore sustainable ways to “make earth green again” through reenvisioning and exploiting the sponge-like capabilities of desert sand.
Their patented technology, Liquid Nanoclay (LNC), turns natural minerals and clays into a sprayable liquid that, when applied, introduces these materials to sandy soil. A treatment of Desert Control’s nanotechnology blend of finely dispersed clay particles and irrigation water can rejuvenate desert soils in just a few hours, with lasting effects of up to five years per treatment. Approximately 4 liters of LNC mixed with irrigation water is enough to treat a single hectare of land.
The liquid in LNC contains tiny negatively charged clay particles that coat sand grains with an electrical charge that allows substances of an opposing charge—as happens with polar water molecules—to stick to a sand grain’s surface and increase the likelihood that water will reach plant roots.
This harmonious reaction forms a delicate “snowflake-like” lattice that significantly improves water and nutrient retention while reducing erosion.
LNC is almost as thin as water and is applied directly to the surface of desert sand via irrigation systems that allow it to percolate into the ground to a depth of around 30–60 cm (12–24 inches).
The small particle size allows for easy application of LNC and much greater interaction with sand grains, causing a sandy field’s particles to stick together and hold moisture and nutrients similar to how rich, dark agricultural soil does.
“The innovative aspect of nanotechnology here is that the small particle size enables a stable dispersion, so no settling [occurs],” said White.
Sandy soils have a composition and aggregate structure that are inherently poor at retaining water. “This [LNC] will create a physical environment more conducive to water retention and healthy root growth,” said White. “The technology is sound,” he added.
“Fundamentally, LNC is attempting to address the lack of sustainability of conventional agriculture.”
LNC also promotes the growth of mycorrhizal fungi, which form a symbiotic relationship with crops and other plants, resulting in improved soil nutrient content. Application of LNC can increase crop yields while preserving water resources by up to 50%. “Fundamentally, LNC is attempting to address the lack of sustainability of conventional agriculture,” said White.
Enhancing Water Retention and Crop Growth
Water loss is often a problem in modern agricultural ecosystems—too much of the water supplied by conventional irrigation is not absorbed by the plants.
Water losses vary by region, soil type, crop, and irrigation method but can range from about 5% to 70%. Irrigation of areas with sandy soils, dry climates, and less-developed infrastructure—such as a lack of drip irrigation and soaker hoses—results in greater losses.
LNC is typically applied in these areas. “Essentially, it is trying to increase water retention in sandy soils to promote crop growth, in some cases allowing crop growth in areas where it’s been too dry before,” said White.
LNC thus can serve as a baseline product that significantly increases water use efficiency—and can be used in tandem with “many other nanoscale strategies… to complement overall crop production efficacy,” said White.
For example, nanoscale strategies to increase phosphorus availability or micronutrient use efficiency, along with investigations into more efficient pesticide use, could benefit from partnering with LNC.
Born in the Nile Delta
Conceptually, LNC is not a new idea. Instead, it imitates the role that clay played in ancient Egypt’s Nile Delta—before the construction of the Aswan Dam—in restoring resilience to arid lands.
In the 1980s, local farmers began to see declines in productivity in previously flourishing parts of the Nile Delta. Given the area’s legendary reputation for farming, despite its proximity to arid desert, scientists hunted for reasons for the land’s decreased fertility.
They found that the Aswan Dam, built in the 1960s, stopped the downstream flow of key materials for delta soil fertility, thus marking the beginnings of what could be called the nanoclay approach.
Fast-forward 60 years: Following significant research and development, manufacturers, environmentalists, and agriculturists now recognize LNC’s place in the nanotech toolkit.
It has been known for quite some time that adding clay to sandy soil has an effect similar to LNC, but conventional non-nanoscale clays must be added to sandy soil either dry or in water, where they have tended to settle out, making soil improvements a relatively slow process—taking years in some cases.
From the Middle East to the US
In partnership with Arizona University and the Yuma County Cooperative Extension, Desert Control began its first multiyear validation study of LNC for American soil in 2022. The study focused on LNC’s ability to increase water-holding capacity in sandy soils and examined the transferability of results previously obtained by the firm in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Through this project, Desert Control hopes to advance climate-smart agriculture through collaborative action between the US and the Middle East.
In the following video, Ole Kristian Silvertsen, CEO of Desert Control, compares LNC-treated land at its Abu Dhabi–based project (in collaboration with Mawarid and Barari Natural Resources) to adjacent untreated land, serving as its control reference point.
Irrigation across the two areas is the same; yet, the one without LNC treatment resembles typical desert sand—it sifts away, does not retain a shape, and holds no moisture.
The video also highlights the growth of Panicum (in LNC-treated UAE soil), a type of forage and cereal grass (commonly called panicgrass) that produces tiny flowers, and alfalfa, a perennial flowering plant that belongs to the legume family.
There have been various documented outcomes of LNC in action, demonstrating its real-world impact. Case studies involving field trials in the UAE, Egypt, Norway, and Saudi Arabia appear to be independent, third-party field trials. “That being said, the peer-reviewed literature on this appears quite thin—this will be an important bar to get over,” White noted.
Securing the Future of Agriculture and Food, Sustainably
With the rise of nano-enabled farming, LNC is part of a wave of new sustainable developments designed to protect and preserve land. While a bright and prominent one, LNC is but one star in a broader constellation of nanotechnologies in agriculture.
With the rise of nano-enabled farming, LNC is part of a wave of new sustainable developments designed to protect and preserve land.
Today, universities and research laboratories worldwide are pursuing knowledge about nanotechnologies and how they can spur sustainable solutions. In June 2024, researchers, including North Carolina State University’s Khara Grieger, assistant professor and extension specialist, published a paper examining how nanotechnology and nanocarriers can increase production efficiency, crop resilience, and yields. The Ristroph Lab at Purdue University in the US is investigating scalable nanomaterials for agrochemical delivery and agricultural applications.
“There is the whole developing field of nanoscale seed treatment and priming technologies,” said White.
This should provide ample opportunities to advance mechanisms that can bolster food production as well as increase crops’ overall climate resilience.
White would like to see more research regarding food safety. “In terms of human food safety, we should find out if there are nanoclay particles in the plants or in the edible tissues,” he said.
Yet, in general, the problems and challenges faced by agriculture in a changing climate, along with the need to increase food production are enormous, and the solutions offered by nanotechnology, including LNC, appear promising and impactful. “They should be pursued with enthusiasm and intensity,” said White.
*Natasha Spencer-Jolliffe is a freelance journalist and editor. Over the past 10 years, she has reported for a host of publications, exploring the wider world and industries from environmental, scientific, business, legal, and sociological perspectives. Natasha has also been interviewed as an insight provider for research institutes and conferences.
Editorial notes
Source: Interview with Jason White, Director of The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station.
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