The theme of the Dutch pavilion at the World Expo in Dubai is water , energy , and food . on the dot the surface area for which Wageningen University & Research modernize numerous foundation , also for the Middle East . In January and February WUR will be present in Dubai to demonstrate what noesis and technology can stand for for both the region and far beyond .
WUR ’s knowledge and technology in the areas of water , Department of Energy and food are applicable in all sort of seat around the public and are thus also interesting for the Middle East . Perhaps precisely because of the thought-provoking stipulation there , because how do you maturate veg and fruit at temperature of nearly 50 degrees and how do you get enough urine in the desert ?
During the World Expo in Dubai ( seeHome – Dutch Dubai ) in early 2022 – remit for a year because of the coronavirus pandemic – scientists from Wageningen will march what reflexive greenhouses , erect farm and groundbreaking desalinization methods could imply in the Gulf Region . And also beyond this country since many other countries across the Earth will attend ( online ) the ‘ water program ’ in January - during the ‘ Global Goals week ’ from the 16th-22nd - and the ‘ Food Week ’ from the 17th till 23rd of February at the Dutch Pavilion .
WUR ’s chair of the board Louise Fresco will also be present in Dubai , either in mortal – if corona developments permit a visit – or digitally .
Three examples of what WUR is already doing in the Middle East :
Sweltering heating system but circle of lovely cucumbersAlthough vegetable like cucumber , tomato and capsicum pepper plant need some sparkle and lovingness to get , the conditions in Abu Dhabi , where temperature reach 48 degrees in summer , are far from idealistic . You might recall it would be good to spell , but it ’s not that simple . Jouke Campen , a horticultural technologist at WUR and active for year in the Middle East : “ The nutrient crisis of 2008 was a wake - up call to the countries there : they have enough money to import fresh products , but if there ’s a worldwide shortfall they ’ll be on the losing end . And corona has also shown how vulnerable your intellectual nourishment supplying are when you ’re dependent on others . ” In curt : countries in the Middle East need to become producers themselves , principally in greenhouses and to a lesser extent on the solid ground ( potatoes and courgette ) .
But that ’s easier said than done ; in summation to the swelter heat in summer , it ’s also bone dry . Campen : “ It hardly ever rains , there ’s footling groundwater and that ’s also too saline . ” As a answer , the calibre of the produce grow is poor . Moreover , the amount of produce ease up is low .
An employee of a grower in Abu Dhabi shows an aubergine plant to Jouke Campen ( depart ) and his WUR - colleague Feije de Zwart ( right ) . pic : Jouke Campen
" Yet there ’s hope " , Campen added while grapple with requests for help from 800 growers in Abu Dhabi . “ With the practical knowledge we ’ve gained in the preceding few years in the region , we ’re investigate adaption to the glasshouse systems that would increase production and decrease the use of water . It turn out that if we better the cooling scheme and allow more light to enter the greenhouses ( so less dimming by screen ) , less H2O is needed for cooling , the glasshouse climate ameliorate and yield increases . ”
And more advance can be made . “ They still use a lot of pesticide there to protect crops . We ’re studying how to replace these by using biological control , such as insects . ” The more data Campen and his team compile , the better : “ It enable us to hear how we can arise crop as best as possible in the area and that could be utile for loads of other place in the world . ”
An important deterrent example that Campen has learned in the Middle East : keep it simple . “ In the Middle East , there ’s little noesis about the expert ways to grow crops and no knowledge at all about maturate with the help of hokey intelligence activity . If we make things too complicated , the technology wo n’t be used . So we take that into consideration . ”
cagey desalinization of liters and liters of seawaterSweet weewee is scarce in the Middle East , and the saltwater from the Arabian Gulf is not only very saline but is becoming more so as the dry land warm up . To desalinise their drinking water , the countries in that region presently use the ‘ turn osmose - RO ’ technique . “ Water is squeezed through a tissue layer at high pressure , but because the body of water is becoming progressively more saline solution , more and more more pressure is needed to desalinise it . The physical process is becoming less effective and is be more energy per cubic decimetre , ” explain Maurits Burgering from WUR . Together with knowledge institute TNO , Wageningen Food & Biobased Research ( WFBR ) has found a solvent : Memstill and its even more forward-looking replacement MemPower . This prize - win technology can desalinize water in another means : by means of distillation ( see the animation MemPower : staring water and electricity - YouTube ) .
The Memstill desalinization initiation . pic : Maurits Burgering
Burgering : “ The pilot system , which is as large as a sea container , can better litigate high salt assiduity and can operate on more sustainable source of energy such as sunlight , geothermic heat or residual heat . In the Middle East , such a system can run well using solar board that can be placed on the desalination equipment in a building or , for example , a complex of greenhouse . In social club for the solar panels to work well in the high temperature of the Middle East , they have to be cooled . you may also utilise the residual passion from this process to operate the Memstill . Such residual heat can also make out from other sources , such as mill or quickness in the field . ”
The Memstill applied science has been tested in several pilot light projection from Rotterdam to Singapore and Malta , and there ’s now also a pilot film project on Texel . Burgering : “ It ’s been sufficiently demonstrated that it works . The piddle produced is as complete as can be and , after the bantam addition of some minerals , it ’s splendid drinking water .
This alternative desalinization engineering science is interesting to governing and business organisation in the Middle East . But do they really think the sustainability divisor of Memstill is so important there ? There ’s batch of oil and gas . “ That lunar time period has to turn , ” said Burgering . “ They fully agnise that they have to invest in the future tense and reduce emissions in orderliness to keep the world liveable . Moreover , the old desalinization technologies could start to get out down if the seawater becomes too saline . And it would be quite annoying if you one day open up the pat and nothing comes out . ”
Plus : water is also essential for solid food security measure . “ That ’s why we now so often talk about the water - push - food for thought - nexus : those factors interact with one another . Definitely in the Middle East with its utmost conditions , but this link is present at many other spot in the creation . ” So origination in free energy are just as of import and can supplement other innovations , which is something you now see with Memstill : in the successor MemPower , the investigator from WFBR link desalinization with the yield of hydrogen , which can serve as an alternative fuel .
For both WUR and the Dutch companies regard in the growth of Memstill , the Middle East is a very interesting market for startle - ups , said Burgering . “ The utmost heat and dry conditions organise an extra challenge in the desalination process , which enables us to make optimum usage of this proficiency . We ’re ready ; we ’ve already developed a tumid technological plan and business concern plan together with partner in the region and we desire that local government will stick to through . ”
High - technical school greenhouses are n’t enoughGreenhouses with technological novelties make horticulture in the desert potential , but to really get food yield in the Middle East off the ground , you need to undertake the whole yield chain , say Peter Ravensbergen , expertise drawing card Horticulture at Wageningen Economic Research . “ From seed to refrigerate storage and raptus . Plus training all of the entrepreneurs involved so that they can capably manage the diverse phase of product . ”
Peter Ravensbergen , expertise leader Horticulture at Wageningen Economic Research .
Ravensbergen denote to this as the ‘ ecosystem ’ thinking that ’s needed to produce clean food efficiently and sustainably . Because WUR is honest at overseeing the whole chemical chain , it is often hired at various place . “ We analyse gravid - scale agrocomplexes . century of hectares filled with advanced greenhouses and perpendicular farms ( closed buildings containing multi - layered refinement in which all gene are applied , ed . ) that can provide zillion of mass with fresh food in a sustainable way . An example close to home is Agriport A7 in the province of Noord - Holland with more than 400 hectare of glass ( greenhouses , ed . ) and enterpriser who render sustainable energy themselves . ”
Or the projection in the American state of Kentucky where the local governance called in WUR and Dutch university of applied sciences as well as companies for advice on how to organise an tremendous mellow - tech ecosystem , also 400 hectares . The subject matter – and this also apply on a minuscule scale in the Middle East : you ca n’t set everything with money . “ you could endow as many dollar or dirham ( up-to-dateness in Dubai , ed ) as you want in ironware like greenhouses , but if you do n’t have the right software and orgware – that is , professional noesis and cognition of patronage models – then you wo n’t win . ”
Ravensbergen ’s content during the World Expo in Dubai , which he will punctuate during the ‘ food workweek ’ in February , stretches beyond the possibilities for gardening in the Middle East . But he does n’t want to trivialise the grandness of improving local food yield . “ Something has to happen , in the first shoes because the neighborhood is far too dependent on import . That not only creates uncertainty but it ’s also not sustainable . ” Ravensbergen finds it difficult to say whether bring out locally in those uttermost conditions is n’t just as damaging to the surround . “ We do n’t recognize that precisely yet , and it is an interesting learning point for WUR . Because we collect increasingly more data , we can progressively make good prevision about what you need to raise intellectual nourishment expeditiously and sustainably in very warm , ironic fix . For instance , in the Middle East we ’re learn which Lycopersicon esculentum varieties grow well , on the dot how much water you need and how saline the water can be . ” This knowledge can be applied in other part of the earth where such utmost conditions prevail – a grow number because of clime change .
Another important motivation for grow food topically and sustainably in the Gulf States is to decrease food waste , Ravensbergen total . Because the disposable income there has rebel so sharply in the last few year , food wasteland per inhabitant is more than twice the world average . “ By produce locally , you make waste matter more tangible – you waste the food that you ’ve spent energy and money on to rise in your own country – and at the same time you may promote the re - use of residual flow so that you may process solid food residues in other food or use them as animal provender and in biobased fabric . ”
For more information : Wageningen University & Researchwww.wur.nl
