Silal and Square Roots partner to revolutionise desert agriculture with climate-smart innovations

Silal’s Innovation Oasis has recently signed a collaboration agreement with Square Roots, an agritech company. The goal? To speed up the development of climate-smart agriculture specifically suited to the tough desert conditions of the UAE. This partnership, announced by Silal and covered by HortiDaily, sees Square Roots bringing in its expertise in controlled‑climate farming, indoor crop science, and the use of AI applications to a national testbed located in Al Ain. Silal explains that this move is aimed at boosting food security, making water use more efficient, and creating a next-generation ecosystem for agricultural innovation.

According to the agreement, Square Roots will set up a multi-zone, fully cloud-connected research facility powered by AI right on the Innovation Oasis site. This facility will allow multiple trials on crops adapted to desert environments, genetics optimized for low light, modular indoor farms, and AI tools designed specifically for agriculture. As noted, the platform is envisioned as a national testing ground to help move resource-efficient solutions into the commercial sector across the UAE.

H.E. Dhafer Rashed Al Qasimi, CEO of Silal, told HortiDaily: “This partnership is a key expansion for Innovation Oasis’s global collaborations, bringing top-tier agricultural innovation to Abu Dhabi and supporting the UAE’s position as a leader in climate-smart and desert farming. By combining advanced research, AI tools, and farmer development programs, we’re speeding up sustainable food production and making our agricultural sector more resilient for future generations.”

Similarly, Kimbal Musk, who is the Executive Chairman of Square Roots, echoed this strategic vision. He said to HortiDaily: “Our partnership with Innovation Oasis really highlights a shared goal, rethinking what’s possible in agriculture in dry, harsh environments. Bringing together Square Roots’ knowledge of controlled climate farming and crop science with Abu Dhabi’s forward-looking agricultural initiatives could really accelerate progress in food security and resource management, creating scalable models that help farmers in the UAE and other desert regions worldwide.”

There’s more to this collaboration, notably an R&D agenda with clear, measurable efficiency goals. Silal points out that one major focus is developing crop genetics that thrive in low-light conditions, aiming to cut energy use in indoor farming systems by up to 40%. This builds off Square Roots’ prior research, which received support from the Gates Foundation. The project will also work on selecting the best crops for desert climates, broadening the variety of local crops, and creating AI-powered decision tools to help optimize use of water and nutrients.

Building capacity is another core element. Square Roots’ “Next‑Gen Farmer Training Program” will be adapted to the local context, helping Emirati scientists, agronomists, and growers gain advanced technical skills. They’ll also tailor their modular indoor farming platform into a resource-efficient version suitable for smallholders, including scalable systems that can operate on solar power, Silal says.

This agreement with Square Roots is just the latest example of how Innovation Oasis is becoming an important regional hub for desert agriculture research. Silal notes that the center already hosts collaborations focused on crop resilience, seed genetics, and pilot projects aimed at commercial applications.

Earlier this year, Silal announced a partnership with Limagrain Vegetable Seeds to establish the Center of Excellence for Abiotic Resilience and Crop Genomics at Innovation Oasis. The focus here, Silal notes, is on improving how crops tolerate heat, drought, and salinity, supporting the UAE’s ambitious Food Security Strategy 2051.

Silal has also expanded partnerships with Bayer. An MoU signed at the World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit in Dubai outlines a program running through 2028. This includes plans for a Forward Farming demonstration site at Innovation Oasis, region-specific digital farming solutions, and the expansion of seed trials and capacity-building efforts.

Other initiatives include a Musataha agreement with KEZAD Group to roll out large-scale AgTech projects in Al Ain. These projects feature a 50,000-square-meter indoor farm dedicated to premium berries and high-value crops grown in controlled environments over a total of 100,000 square meters.

As for the Innovation Oasis itself, Silal describes it as a sprawling 300,000 square meter R&D hub, complete with labs and trial facilities. It boasts soil and water diagnostics labs, pest and disease facilities, phenotyping chambers, and open-field trial sites equipped with IoT sensors. The Square Roots facility will connect into this ecosystem, offering a cloud-based platform for testing technologies under real desert conditions.

Altogether, these partnerships reflect a layered, coordinated approach. Silal is combining early-stage seed research, genomics, and trait development with digital tools, controlled environment agriculture, and farmer-training programs. The idea is to translate promising research into practical, commercially viable applications for dry climates.

Experts say that the UAE’s strategy fits within broader global trends focused on resilient food systems. Many desert or arid-region governments are now favoring integrated R&D hubs that can test and adapt new technologies locally, rather than relying solely on external labs. Silal highlights that conducting trials in the UAE allows developers to see how crops perform under the high heat, intense sunlight, and saline water that are typical of desert farming.

That said, challenges certainly remain. Scaling indoor farming systems to be economically viable and reducing their energy consumption are significant hurdles. The claim that low-light genetics can cut energy use by up to 40% will need to be proven in real-world conditions, across seasonal changes and operational variations. Still, Silal’s multi-partner approach aims to gather enough data and provide enough demonstration sites to validate these claims.

For the UAE, balancing public strategy with private innovation is about reducing dependence on food imports and boosting local production, especially in such a tough environment. By positioning Innovation Oasis as a testbed and training hub, Silal hopes to kickstart a local industry that can export climate-smart solutions to other arid regions around the world.

The Square Roots partnership, in particular, emphasizes controlled-climate systems and AI as central elements in this pipeline. Silal explains that the new facility will not only test crops and systems but also serve as a launchpad for commercially viable, resource-efficient farming models tailored specifically for the UAE and similar dry environments.

Source: Noah Wire Services