Farming without soil seen as solution in land without water

Growing lettuce in the desert is not most people's idea of how to make a success of farming, but Amr Bassiouny believes he is on to something.

The 30-year-old chief executive of Egyptian Hydrofarms says he is growing salad greens at his farm on the outskirts of Cairo using 90 percent less water than traditional methods, and at the same time obtaining better yields.

"This is important in Egypt because we have scarce water resources, so you're able to grow large quantities with much less use of resources," he told Reuters Television.

Hydroponics is farming in water instead of soil. Bassiouny places his plants in pipes through which water and nutrients are pumped. Egypt's population of more than 90 million is growing, and agricultural land is shrinking due to illegal construction on the fertile banks of the Nile and its delta, the country's breadbasket. Unlicensed construction picked up pace after the 2011 uprising, with the government estimating that 90,000 acres (36,400 hectares) of farmland were lost in the first three years alone.

Read the full article by Giles Elgood via Reuters.

[Photo via Egyptian Hydrofarms web site]