There are a lot of vegetables grown in the Liwa Grimace for a desert. The Abu Dhabi and Dubai government want to push more forage crops due to them importing almost all of their forage needs. Contradicting that, it is now illegal to grow Rhodes Grass and Alfalfa (lucerne) in the area. It was deemed to have too high a water requirement . This ties in with some of the work ICBA are doing looking for salt tolerant forage crops to be used throughout the UAE. I still struggle with the fact that forage crops could be considered more profitable than vegetables. A drive around the area proved to be an eye opening experience with lots of vegetables of all types growing happily and all irrigated with saline water. Everything is irrigated with drip systems sporting adjustable push on emitters. Capable of 1 to 100lt an hour they put out a lot of water. The problem is no one is calibrating them. This isn't good as far as efficiency goes but some over watering does help to prevent salt accumulation in the root zone. Their aquifer is enclosed with little to no recharge....a one way street really.
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