You can see Libyan circular farms from space. these use fossil water that underlies much of the sahara.
imho in less than 10 years desalinated water will be cheap enough for desert farming via drip irrigation. Its already cheap enough for desert farming via green houses.
Libyans like to call it “the eighth wonder of the world”.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4814988.stm
quote:
With fossil water available in most of Libya’s coastal cities, the government is now beginning to use its water for agriculture.
Over the country as a whole, 130,000 hectares of land will be irrigated for new farms. Some land will be given to small farmers who will grow produce for the domestic market. Large farms, run at first with foreign help, will concentrate on the crops that Libya currently has to import: wheat, oats, corn and barley.
Libya also hopes to make inroads into European and Middle-Eastern markets. An organic grape farm has been set up near Benghazi. Because the soil is so fertile, agronomists hope to grow two cereal crops a year...unquote
And then NATO bombed the country into rubble and destroyed the project.