An ancient farming method that made the deserts of the Middle East bloom 1,000 years ago should be revived today, say experts in Israel.

The “plot-and-berm” system, developed in the early Islamic period along the Mediterranean coast, used innovative water-harvesting and soil-enrichment technologies to grow vegetables, watermelons, dates, and grapes.

Plots were dug in places where the water table was high, and farmers added urban waste to the sand to improve its fertility. Berms were the sand barriers built to stop the sand/waste mix from being blown away by wind or washed away by water.

Experts at Bar-Ilan University, University of Haifa and the Israel Antiquities Authority say an updated form of plot-and-berm could work effectively as a sustainable, modern-day alternative to existing forms of agriculture in hot, sandy parts of the world.

They’ve been studying what they call SGHAS (traditional sunken groundwater-harvesting agroecosystems) in sandy areas of Israel, Iran, Egypt, Algeria, Gaza and the Atlantic coast of Iberia. They used a combination of geospatial analysis, archeological findings, and historical documentation.

Their conclusion is that this early Islamic farming method was way ahead of its time in terms of agricultural knowhow.

But plot-and-berms were largely abandoned after the 12th century Crusader conquest. The method was adopted elsewhere, in the Middle Ages and again in the early 20th century, but not in Israel or many other parts of the region.

The research team says plot-and-berm has much to offer and neatly addresses current challenges of water scarcity and food insecurity, especially in arid areas.

“The reappearance in the Middle Ages … and early 20th century in Iberia suggests that this type of agriculture is adaptable to varying economic and cultural settings and therefore may possess potential for certain, current socio-agronomic scenarios,” said Prof. Joel Roskin from Bar-Ilan’s Department of Environment, Planning and Sustainability.

His team’s research on plot-and-berms, which was funded by the Israel Science Foundation, has been published in the journal Environmental Archaeology, entitled “Character and Evolution of Sunken Groundwater-Harvesting Agroecosystems in Aeolian Sand since Early Islamic Times, between Iran and Iberia.”

The paper explains how modern agriculture often relies on intensive water usage and practices that deplete soil quality, while traditional systems like plot-and-berm are low-impact and more sustainable.

Farmers living in hot, dry and sandy conditions between the ninth and 12th centuries made the most of the limited assets they had — shallow groundwater and a ready supply of organic waste from nearby towns and cities.