During the past 38 years SEKEM reclaimed 1628 Feddan (approx. 683 hectares) desert land to vital living soil by using Organic and Biodynamic methods. Additionally, SEKEMs contracted farmers cultivate more than 4000 Feddan (approx. 1680 hectares) all over Egypt with sustainable Biodynamic agriculture.

In a country like Egypt that consists of more than 90% desert and is living in water scarcity, sustainable land reclamation has a fundamental meaning for the future. Even though most Egyptians don’t realize, they have not enough water to secure their food supply and are accordingly depending heavily on food imports. With the fast growing population of Egypt, this requires innovative solutions right away.

In the past years, SEKEM did not reclaim additional land (according to the challenging times that Egypt went through since 2011) but could manage to keep the soil fertile. For its efforts in “revitalizing dry lands through biodynamic agriculture methods” and for combating desertification SEKEM received the Land for Life Award by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in 2015.

Since 38 years, SEKEM is committed to reclaiming desert land in a sustainable way by applying Biodynamic agriculture. This means that the whole farm is seen as a living organism.

Animals take a fundamental part in a healthy farm circle and are crucial for biodynamic agriculture. In 2015 SEKEM could increase the number of animals and addressed the topic “how can we accompany the animals with dignity into the future?” at the 19th Demeter International Conference that was hosted by SEKEM. Their manure is an important ingredient in the organic compost, which SEKEM is using instead of chemical fertilizer. The so-called “black gold of the desert” is rich of micro-organisms and keeps the soil fertile. This increases the water holding capacity and the microorganisms are essential to make nutrients available to plants.

SEKEM is strongly focusing on its water footprint as the United Nations predict that the water availability will even drop to below 500 cubic meters per year per capita in Egypt until 2025. This means that Egypt is heading to become completely water scare.

Some of the SEKEM Farms use Nile water and others groundwater, according to the area where they are located. SEKEM is putting a lot of efforts in monitoring the water consumption, especially by inspecting the well water levels to only withdraw sustainable water amounts. SEKEM could decrease the usage of water for agriculture in the past year, which is an outcome of strong maintenance efforts and infrastructure improvements.