Where it is, what it is, why it is.

Seawater Farms Eritrea is the world's first commercial-scale integrated seawater farm.

It is located on the west coast of the Red Sea on a vast stretch of barren desert just north of the Eritrean port of Massawa. Here, on this very ground, was fought the largest tank and artillery battle of Eritrea's thirty-year fight for independence. So, this location has great symbolic power.

It is here that the future of a new Eritrea is being built. Here we are creating a model that could provide a fruitful future for all the nations of the whole region now that peace has been forged at last.

What is an integrated seawater farm?

A seawater farm is a farm that uses clean, untreated seawater to raise its crops instead of freshwater. This represents the second invention of agriculture based this time on the almost infinite supply of water that resides in the world's oceans.

An integrated farm is a farm that combines the growing of field and orchard crops with the husbandry of animals. Until the advent of factory farming in the last century, almost all freshwater agriculture integrated the breeding and raising of animals with the cultivation of green crops. In the case of integrated seawater farming, the animals we raise are shrimp and fish. The green crops are salt-loving edible plants and mangrove trees.

Because integrated seawater farming was developed in our time, we have engineered it to address the problems of our time — hunger, environmental degradation, rising temperatures, drougth and desertification, collapsing fisheries, shrinking cropland, disappearing forests, the loss of plant and animal species, poverty, and indirectly, the growth of population.

Seawater Farms Eritrea is unlike any farm ever built.

We began its construction by cutting a huge channel from the Red Sea. This saltwater river, wide enough for small boats, runs onto the land, rpoviding water to the land-based brick and concrete circles in which we raise our shrimp, filling the three salt lakes that hold the bulk of our fish, nurturing the thousands of mangroves that will shade its shores, irrigating our field crops, and draining, finally, into a sea garden park that is also accessible to boating. This park, forested by several varieties of mangroves, shelters innumerable species of flora and fauna, herons, flamingos, and other shorebirds, marine animals of many kinds, and provides controlled grazing for domestic animals, including goats and camels.

From the sea garden, the water percolates slowly through the soil on its long way to sub-surface return to the sea as clean or cleaner than it was before. This cycle of use guarantees that the sea will not be fouled by the wastes from the farm, and that the waters offshore will remain clear and clean for fish and shellfish to thrive and for people to swim, snorkel and scuba.

The innovative design of the farm enhances the environment in many ways.

By planting eventually hundreds of thousands of hectares of field crops, we will be greening a substantial portion of coastal desert. By planting millions of new mangrove trees, we will be creating new mangrove forests. Both fields and forests will absorb immense amounts of atmospheric carbon, helping to lessen global warming. The most, newly green fields and forests will also create new micro-climates, making the surrounding area more livable and more attractive to tourism. The sea garde provides a new and attractive habitat to numerous animal and plant species and an attractive and aesthetically pleasing amenity to visitors.

Nothing here is wasted. The bricks used to construct our shrimp circles are made here on the farm. So is the food we give our shrimp. Our feed mill also makes feed for chickens, goats, cattle and camels, which is much needed in Eritrea. Wastes from the fish and shrimp help to fertilize our field crops. After the fish are filleted, their skins are tanned for leather and their bones and innards go into the shrimp food. One of our principal field crops, Salicornia, provides a gourmet vegetable from its young shoots. The mature plant provides seeds that produce a fine edible oil and a high protein meal. There is also a large amount of biomass which can be used, along with other seawater-irrigated crops we grow, for animal fodder, particle board, and fire bricks. Combinations of Salicornia straw and meal with fish and shrimp meal provide a complete feeding regimen for most domestic animals and a signifant part of human feed.

We expect this first commercial-scale integrated seawater farm and its associated research facilities and industries to be a magnet for eco-tourism, for academic study, and for itnerested government and agribusiness officials from all over the world. Accordingly, we have a visitors' center, a Seafalls Restaurant, and plan a luxury Sea Garden Hotel. Guided boat tours will traverse the entire expanse of the farm, and opportunities will be afforded for close observation of our technology and direct discussions with our agronomists and aquaculturists.

What our goals are.

Land has already been set aside for the establishment of a new seawater-based community providing homes and jobs for some of Eritrea's displaced people. Training will be provided to equip workers with the skills necessary to operate downstream industries creating the byproducts of integrated seawater farming. new factories will make edible oil, particle board, fire bricks, moder lumber, fish leather goods, goat cheese, cereals, shrimp and fish specialties, and numerous other products.

We ship shrimp and fish to European markets as a way of earning much-needed hard currency. In the long run we envision duplicating this farm many times up and down the coast of the Red Sea sharing this development with other nations in the region and providing a dependable source of food for all the people in the region and for their livestock as well.

We see this as a giant step forward toward creating new wealth in the region, building stable new communities with new industries and rewarding employment. We see this as a major guarantor of future peace in the region and of self-sufficiency for its people. We see it as a way of greening the desert coastline, remaking the enviornment, creating comfortable new micro-climates, and encouraging tourism.

Ultimately we believe this new technology will make the region one of the most productive shrimp and fish producers as well as one of its more productive agricultural areas using saltwater to irrigate new forests and to produce vegetables, oil, meal, and biomass for fuel, building materials, fodder and grazing.

There are approximately 70 species of true mangroves of which some 65 contribute significantly to the structure of mangrove forests. Approximately 15 species occur in South-East Asia, approximately 15 species occur in Africa, and approximately 10 species occur in the America.  

There are nineteen plant families with mangrove representatives and only two families which are exclusively mangrove. There are no order or higher ranks that are exclusively mangroves. Mangroves are not a single genetic group but represent genetic adaptation of a large variety of plant families to a particular environment. In case of plant family, Rhizophoraceae, often considered to be a true mangrove family, only four of its 16 genera inhabit a mangrove habitat.   

Extensive mangrove stands require a layer of earth or sand, usually deposited by rivers and flood tides and shores free of strong wave and tidal action. The also require salt and brackish water. Mangroves are often characterized by aerial roots, seedling that germinate on the tree and buoyant seeds that can be dispersed by water. Mangroves are often found in regions such as estuaries, embayments and broad muddy tidal flats where the local terrain has led to the build up of soil. They prefer sheltered places where tidal and wind are not too destructive. The conditions in which mangroves grow also influence their characteristics for survival, their size and the pattern in which they congregate. On a global scale mangrove distribution is influenced by the presence of warm and cold oceanic currents.  

Mangrove forests are best developed on tropical shorelines where there are large areas available between high and low tide points. Large mangrove formation are typically found in sheltered muddy shorelines that are often associated with the formation of deltas at the mouth of a river system. Mangroves can also be found growing on sandy and rocky shores, coral reefs and oceanic islands. There are instances where islands can be completely covered by mangroves. It is impossible to describe a typical mangrove forest, as the variation in height and girth, even for the same species, is immense, depending on the many factors that control growth  

All plants require various mineral elements to survive and these are absorbed by the roots from the soil. Plants require nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulphur and iron. Sodium chlorides required only in trace quantities and this poses certain problems for mangroves due to high abundance of these two elements in the sea water surrounding their roots. Other trace elements required by the plants for successful growth are boron, manganese, zinc, copper and molybdenum.  

Mangrove soils are quite different from those that most other terrestrial plants grow on. They are poorly drained, lacking in oxygen and are often fine grained and rich in organic matter. In appearance the soils are often clayey mud or sand.  

Mangroves grow on waterlogged soils that are often lacking in oxygen. These are known as anaerobic soils, literally, soil without air. The lack of oxygen in the soil is due to the slow rate of diffusion of oxygen in water and the biological activity of microorganisms in the soil which consumes oxygen. The amount of oxygen in the soil varies according to how often and for how long tides cover the mud, how well drained the areas are, and whether there are chemicals in the soil that absorb oxygen. Oxygen in the soil could be expected to increase in proportion to the amount of time that the soil is exposed to the air and the soil is covered by water. Extreme lack of oxygen in the soil can lead to the formation of gas, hydrogen sulphide, which has rotten egg smell often associated with mangrove swamps.