A true farming miracle in Israel's Arava desert

The Aravah is a desert valley running from the Dead Sea to the Red Sea. It's a very challenging place to do agriculture. We don't have here much water. The temperatures are very high. It's not easy to grow here. We're looking for trees or for crops that have a natural potential to grow. So to grow here in the Aravah Valley, it's really something incredible. Nature truly has no borders. The Aravah Institute for Environmental Studies was founded in 1996. Our students come from the West Bank, Jordan, Israel and internationally. They study multidisciplinary environmental studies alongside our cross-border research projects. I have been domesticating trees, perennial plants, taking them from the wild, making them fit for agriculture. And one of the main crops that we thought could have global impact was Argania spinosa. Argania spinosa is used to produce oil. One of the best edible oils in the world. The need for it or the demand for it is very high. Argan is a very good candidate because naturally it grows in very harsh conditions. This is a process that takes a very long time. But in the end, you get that stable crop. You get plants that are suitable for agriculture that people can depend on. Because of our problem in the Aravah Valley, we give a few solutions. For the water, we put a reverse osmosis. Then we irrigate the strawberries. For the heating, we put a pad and vent system. We have a very good success. The quantity and the quality of the fruits are excellent. Our fruits are very sweet. Very, very long shelf life. The reason we wanted to do agriculture and especially fish here in the Aravah Desert is because this place is a very pure and innocent place. Guppy fish needs a tropical condition. This is exactly the opposite conditions that we have here in the desert. We built this place mainly with the Israeli technology. That technology helps us to cope with those aggressive environments we have outside. And I believe you can take this technology for other hard places in the world and grow anything you want.