Introduction 

Arid and desert environments represent some of the most climate-vulnerable regions on Earth. They are marked by extreme heat, erratic rainfall, and fragile soils — conditions that severely limit agricultural productivity. Climate change is further worsening these challenges by increasing the frequency and intensity of droughts, raising temperatures, and shifting weather patterns. Despite these harsh realities, drylands are home to over 2 billion people and encompass more than 40% of the Earth's land surface. It is vital to harness sustainable technologies and land management strategies that not only support livelihoods but also build resilience and mitigate climate change. One such solution is carbon farming: the intentional management of land to sequester carbon dioxide in soil and vegetation while enhancing agricultural productivity and creating another income stream for farmers. 

Challenges of Desert Agriculture 

Desert agriculture (DA) refers to growing crops and raising livestock in water — scarce environments. Major challenges facing DA are mutually reinforcing challenges of water scarcity, soil degradation, and harsh environment which are being aggravated by the anthropogenic climate change. These challenges adversely affect quantity and quality of agronomic production and increase risks of food and nutritional insecurity. These challenges of DA are aggravated by poverty of the resource-poor small land-holder farmers (Figure 1).  

Figure 1. Challenges of desert agriculture are mutually reinforcing and being aggravated by global warming. 

Desert agriculture faces multiple, interlinked constraints.  

Four primary types of drought threaten productivity: 

• Meteorological drought: Reduced and unreliable rainfall. 

• Hydrological drought: Declining surface and groundwater levels. 

• Pedological drought: Limited availability of plant-available moisture in soil. 

• Agronomic drought: Water stress during key stages of crop growth. 

These droughts, compounded by high evapotranspiration, soil degradation, and salinity, make traditional agricultural practices unsustainable. Many farming systems also suffer from poor infrastructure, lack of technology access, and economic isolation. 

Soil degradation is especially problematic, leading to reduced fertility, erosion, and loss of soil organic matter (SOM) content. Many soils in arid regions also accumulate salts due to improper irrigation practices and use of brackish water, turning once-productive land into saline wastelands. Without integrated, science-based solutions, desertification can render vast landscapes agriculturally unusable. 

Opportunities and Solutions 

Despite these challenges, there are vast opportunities to enhance agronomic productivity by innovative agriculture practices which produce more crop per drop of water. The strategy is harvesting and recycling of precipitation at watershed, landscape, farm and household (roof water harvesting) level. Conventional systems of irrigation (flood, furrow, sprinkler) are obsolete and wasteful in these regions with high evaporation losses. The most appropriate irrigation is drip -sub-fertigation driven by solar power. It is also important to select drought-tolerant plant/animal species which are adaptable to arid and desert environments.  

Technological innovation and ecological stewardship can transform desert agriculture into a model for climate-resilient farming. Key opportunities include: 

• Harvesting of rainwater at various scales — rooftop, farm-level, and watershed-wide systems, 

• Transitioning from flood and furrow irrigation to solar-powered drip sub-fertigation systems, 

• Adopting drought- and salt-tolerant crop varieties, especially millets, legumes, and halophytes, 

• Converting to conservation agriculture (CA) practices: minimum tillage, residue mulching, agroforestry, and  

• Integrating crops with livestock and trees for enhanced nutrient cycling, land productivity, and use efficiency of water. 

One promising approach is “negative emission agriculture” — a model where farming not only avoids emissions but actively removes CO₂ from the atmosphere. This involves techniques such as increasing SOM content, promoting perennial vegetation, and managing salinity to stimulate inorganic carbon storage through formation of secondary carbonates. In many desert soils, the sequestration of soil inorganic carbon (e.g., as secondary carbonates and leaching of bicarbonates) may exceed that of SOM content, offering long-term stability even in harsh climates. 

Carbon Sequestration and Economic Value 

Carbon farming improves food security, enhances ecosystem services, and mitiges climate change. By managing croplands and pastures to sequester carbon, farmers can access emerging carbon credit markets, and potentially earning payments for ecosystem services. This provides an additional income stream, particularly valuable in low-income, resource-poor desert communities. 

Grain crops are grown by a system-based CA that involves elimination of plowing, retention of crop residue mulch, drip sub-fertigation, integration of crops with trees and livestock and use of integrated nutrient management options including biological N fixation. Site/soil-specific adaptation of CA would lead to negative emission agriculture that removes more CO2 from the atmosphere than it emits (Figure 2) 

Figure 2. Opportunities of Carbon Farming in desert agriculture: growing carbon in soil (organic and inorganic) and vegetation to create another income-steam. 

Negative Emission Agriculture and Carbon Farming 

Innovative desert agriculture, based on the concept of more crop per drop and recycling of water and nutrients, can also sequester atmospheric CO2 in land-based sinks .The terrestrial C stock involves soil Carbon( both organic and inorganic) and tree biomass Carbon (both above and below ground). The soil Carbon stock has two components: soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil inorganic carbon (SIC). The SIC stock consists of lithogenic carbonates and bicarbonate derived from the weathering of parent rock, and pedogenic carbonates formed by soil processes. Leaching of bicarbonates in irrigated systems is another process of sequestration of SIC. Sequestration of Carbon in trees and woody biomass is another component of land-based C sinks. In arid and desert environments, SIC stock is larger than SOC stock . 

For instance, practices like afforestation of marginal lands, use of biochar, and integrated nutrient management can enhance both soil fertility and carbon capture. If properly measured and verified, these improvements could qualify for carbon offsets, with credits valued at $20–$50 per metric ton of CO₂ equivalent. Farmers must be paid according to the social value of carbon under site-specific situations. 

Moreover, water-smart innovations such as saline agriculture and brackish water desalination can expand arable land area and support rural livelihoods. These measures, when combined with robust policy support, can enable dryland farmers to become front-line actors in climate mitigation. 

Conclusion 

Desert regions have long been viewed as agriculturally marginal. Yet with thoughtful, interdisciplinary approaches, they can serve as powerful platforms for climate-smart innovation. Carbon farming offers a tangible pathway to sequester carbon, regenerate degraded land, and build resilient food systems. By integrating technological tools with ecological principles, drylands can transform from zones of vulnerability to hubs of regeneration, and from civil strife and political unrest to inspiration for global peace and harmony. 

References 

1) Lal, R. (2004). Carbon sequestration in dryland ecosystems. Environmental Management, 33(4), 528–544. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-003-9110-9 

2) Lal, R. (2009). Carbon sequestration in saline soils. Journal of Soil Salinity and Water Quality, 1(1–2), 30–40. 

3) Lal, R. (2019). Carbon cycling in global drylands. Current Climate Change Reports, 5(3), 221–232. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40641-019-00136-1 

4) Lal, R. (2023). Agriculture in the North Western Sahara Aquifer System: A miracle in the making? Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, 78(3), 57A–62A. https://doi.org/10.2489/jswc.2023.0106A