We build ecosystems with saltwater to fight climate change and create regenerative ingredients
We build ecosystems with saltwater to fight climate change and create regenerative ingredients
Founded in 2021, NARA is a Scottish agro-ecology company working around the world to restore landscapes and produce carbon-negative ingredients for industry by building ecosystems with saltwater.
At NARA, our mission is to support farming communities at the frontlines of climate change, by helping them turn salt-affected land into productive ecosystems that support economic activity while benefiting nature.
Since 2021 we have worked across twelve countries on four continents, restoring land and providing routes to market for our partner farmers.
NARA helps farmers turn salt-affected and salinised land into healthy agro-ecologies where naturally salt-tolerant crops are grown to produce a wide variety of ingredients from food, animal feed, cosmetics to bio-fuels and building materials. All while capturing tons of carbon.
We do this by selecting some of the over 3,000 different types of salt-tolerant crops that can grow with saltwater or on salt-affected land and introducing these to degraded coastal or dryland farmland.
Salinity is a massive problem around the world, and is hardly ever talked about on the global stage. Over a billion hectares of land is salt-affected, and growing at a frightening scale. Globally, millions of farmers are forced off their land each year due to this threat.
The process of salinisation happens in a number of different ways. Salt can harm land when rising sea levels or flooding from the sea inundates coastal land, but this is actually not the largest contributor to salinisation of land. The single biggest source of salinisation is the combination of modern irrigation and agriculture, and climate-change induced threats such as irregular rainfall and heat. Salt is in everything, including freshwater in small amounts. Modern irrigation practices, together with rising temperatures, mean that irrigated water evaporates at higher rates, so that over time trace salts are left on farmland. Over time, often decades, salt builds-up to the point where land can no longer support normal crops.
That’s why we see much of the salt-affected land being in dry places like Australia, Southern Africa, and the American West, though coastal farmland is also under tremendous pressures from rising sea-levels.
With so much of our precious farmland being lost, our ability to produce food and necessary feedstocks for the green transition is being threatened.
To restore and bring this land back into productivity we look to coastal ecosystems for solutions. These ecosystems host thousands of species that thrive in the harshest conditions and are tolerant to high salinities.
Blue ecosystems, such as saltmarshes are truly incredible. They play a disproportionately important role in protecting biodiversity, storing carbon, and providing feedstocks for nature.
Saltmarshes and mangrove forests store more carbon than any other ecosystem, and do so more than 10 times faster than land-based forests.
Because the many species growing in these ecosystems are so highly tolerant to salt, they can be grown on salt-affected land. This salt-stress in their natural habitat has resulted in these species containing numerous highly valuable micro and macro-nutrients that are important ingredients in a wide variety of industries from animal feed, to nutrition, and even bio-fuels, all while being truly carbon-negative.
Saltmarsh species, such as Salicornia (Samphire), contain more bio-active compounds and omega 3 than any other plant group globally, high value compounds used in pharmaceuticals and health products, while the leaves of mangrove trees contain natural anti-carcinogens that improve the health of animals consuming them.
By restoring and building these blue ecosystems in integrated restoration agriculture approaches, NARA brings degraded land into agricultural productivity. This is significant, as it can help avoid healthy arable land being diverted away from food production to growing feedstocks for industry transition such as with corn-based bio-fuels.
Halophytes are plants that tolerate high levels of salt. Each species/crop presents a unique set of ingredients with high-value applications as a feedstock for industry use. Depending on geography and need, we use a selection of these crops. Here are some of our favourites.
Easily the team's favourite (for good reasons), the Sarcocornia family truly does it all. It is a perennial with an incredible ability to survive droughts, floods, and extreme salinities. Annually it produces 40 tonnes per hectare of biomass with high levels of bio-active compounds, useful in animal feed, nutraceuticals and healthcare products. It can absorb 50 tCO2/e per hectare annually, making it a climate champion. Most importantly, it is extremely easy to grow and is very 'user friendly' for farmers.
The salicornia family is closely related to the perennial sarcocornia. It is an annual plant that equally survives in extreme salinities. While it is more difficult to grow and does not survive drought conditions like its perennial cousin, its major advantages is that it can be used as a high-value vegetable (delicious!) and produces a much better oilseed.
Here's Chris with partner farmers in Bangladesh growing salicornia on salt-affected rice paddies.
Sea aster is another annual plant that is very delicious and nutritious, being used in gourmet vegetable markets.
It equally thrives in seawater-levels of salinity, and is high in protein, making it a good fodder crop for livestock.
It is also a prolific flower producer, making it a great plant for pollinators.
Limoniastrum is a perennial shrub that is highly drought and salt tolerant. High in bio-actives, it contains more protein than most halophytes, making it interesting as a protein fodder source in dryland regions.
Suaeda is another highly salt-tolerant plant that grows in marginal land. It grows extremely quickly and can be used for feedstocks in a wide range of applications from feed, food, to bio-energy.
Mangroves are highly productive ecosystem species. We use the leaves of mangrove trees grown sustainably on our farms to create carbon-negative feed, proven to boost survival rates of fish and livestocks through inflammatory and bio-active compounds.
First explored in the 1970s, the field of halophytic (salt-loving) agriculture has led to notable advances in coastal and salt-affected land-management. Halophytes can be uniquely applied to transform heavily degraded and salinised soils into productive agro-ecologies with the potential for agriculture, climate adaptation, and carbon sequestration.
Halophyte agriculture benefits from the high yields generated across numerous product optionalities. A single hectare produces feedstocks in the form of biomass, oils, and straw. Soil carbon is captured without negative effects from harvesting above-ground biomass.
As industries transition away from harmful feedstocks to regenerative bio-based ingredients, producers and consumers are looking for healthy alternatives that regenerate soil, water, and communities. Our ingredients are the answer. These agro-ecology approaches, combining blue ecosystems with green transition, support the establishment of holistic blue-green economies able to restore degraded landscapes while helping supply-chains become carbon negative and nature-positive.
The nearly 1 billion hectares of land affected by salt is more than enough land to convert to saline agro-ecologies and supply enough feedstocks for the green transition, without diverting arable land away from food production. As a by-product, we would store more carbon than the Amazon rainforest.
Our team of experts from diverse backgrounds are based around the world, from Europe to Africa and Asia. We are proud to be in the ground with our partners, building projects from the ground up.
Our partners are a diverse set of landowners, farmers, project developers, and NGOs working across global geographies affected by salt. We work with hundreds of individuals across four continents to bring solutions to the most deserving communities at the frontlines of climate change.