Kick-starting mother nature. How to turn the desert into a fertile place fast, easy and cheap

The Naga Foundation is a non-profit organisation based in the Netherlands. Naga conducts innovative water management work in semi-arid parts of Africa and Asia

To tackle this problem, it is essential to improve the water collection capacity of soil. This is achieved with the help of so-called contour trenches. These are trenches that follow the contours of the landscape and capture the rainwater flowing downwards above ground. Using these trenches, destructive above-ground water flows no longer erode the soil, wash away the fertile top soil and any vegetation still present.

Added to this, instead of this rainwater continuing to flow away in a downward direction, above ground, these trenches mean that water flows underground, resulting in the creation of an underground water supply. This underground water supply is used not only as drinking water by humans and animals, but also stimulates the growth of natural vegetation and of the agricultural crops planted.

Learn more and source: http://quasi-mundo.com/2012/05/how-to-turn-the-desert-into-a-fertile-place/