Strategic advisory · Arid-zone food security
Christian Strunden helps decision-makers and investors in the MENA region turn heat, sun and salt into the advantage, not the obstacle.
The reframe
In Europe, rain waters the field for free. In an arid zone, water is the costliest input there is, so the European crop list loses money on the first hectare. The useful move is not to fight the climate but to turn it into the advantage: choose the species, and the places, that were built for heat, sun and salt.
What pays here
Crassulaceae · CAM plants
They take in humidity from the night air and photosynthesise by daylight, so they ask for almost no irrigation. Beneath a solar farm they also hold the soil in place. The clearest example of a plant built for this environment rather than fighting it.
Opuntia · Cactus
High-yield animal feed where nothing else grows, with fruit and processing revenues behind it. Best where nights stay cool.
Saltwater aquaculture
The coast is an asset. Marine species raised in seawater, in a place where fresh water was never the option.
Dunaliella salina · Algae
Micro-algae that thrive on salt and strong light, grown for pigments and nutraceuticals that carry a real price.
Native botanicals
Medicinal desert species grown for extract value rather than tonnage, reaching a value per hectare irrigated commodities cannot.
Neem · Hardy trees
Deep-rooted and extremely drought-tolerant, useful in every part from windbreak to pharmacopeia.
Premium fruit
Where the microclimate and the water maths allow, fruit that commands a real export price.
How he decides
One cubic kilometre feeds about a million people for a year. What it costs depends entirely on its source, from nothing at all to billions. That single number keeps a plan honest before any capital is committed.
And sometimes the number says grow it somewhere else. Water-hungry production, dairy above all, belongs where rain is free, in Ireland or the temperate south. The desert imports the result and keeps its own water for what only the desert can grow.
Illustrative range, for the shape of the decision. Exact values pinned to the project data annex before any published use.
The method
For each brief, Christian assembles a small team of the best specialists available and dissolves it when the work is done. A sleek operation with low overhead and fast reaction, so you pay for the expertise the problem needs, not for an agency.
Where he sits
Problem-solving that never needs your name on it.
A discreet thinking partner for decision-makers, while the options are still open.
A discreet sounding board for investors, prior to committing capital.
Working in English, French, German and Spanish, at ease with MENA institutions.
A conversation
If your office is weighing an agricultural or water investment in an arid zone, a short and confidential exchange may save you a great deal.
The first conversation is on me.