Could hydroponics help water-parched Jordan?
Looking at the past 50 years, a 2013 report on climate change impacts found that the average local temperature in Jordan increased rapidly since 1992 - by 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius.
Jordan also witnessed a dramatic decrease in rainfall - problematic for a country that depends solely on rainfall as its main water resource.
The country is expected to witness a 15 to 60 percent decrease in precipitation and a 1 to 4 degree increase in temperature within the next 80 years.
Searching for innovative solutions to alleviate the strain on food production, Jordan may have found a technique that could work: hydroponic farming.
At his farm in Um Al-Rumanah village, some 30 kilometers south of Amman, Al Barawi grows cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplants, roses and other produce.
The water recycles through pipes in a closed system, circulating through the plants' roots, feeding more than 200 greenhouses.
Together with his special mixture of fertilizer composed of volcanic rock from the Azraq area, Al Barawi said he uses at least 40 percent less water, and his production has increased by 20 percent.
"We don't lose one drop of water in this system," Al Barawi said.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been funding hydroponic farms, including the 300-square-meter greenhouse in Zarqa, which produces 29,000 heads of lettuce annually.
According to USAID, each individual lettuce plant produced hydroponically requires 7.5 liters of water. Conventional farming would need more than 40 liters per plant and 1,000 square meters of land.
Read more at Deutsche Welle