Abdulaziz Khalid

Saudi engineer transforming desert regions into food-secure agricultural hubs

Abdulaziz Khalid (b. 1990) is a Saudi agricultural engineer pioneering vertical farming in arid climates. His 2020 startup Saudi Green Farms now supplies 15% of Riyadh's leafy greens using 90% less water than traditional methods. Khalid's DesertBloom technology combines solar-powered hydroponics with camel urine recycling systems, achieving 800% crop yield increases.

In 2023, he launched the Arab AgriTech Alliance, training 2,000+ farmers from 12 Middle Eastern countries in desert agriculture. His invention of Namlat soilless farming modules allows nomadic Bedouin communities to cultivate crops while maintaining traditional lifestyles.

Khalid's 2024 partnership with the UAE government created the world's first floating farm in the Arabian Gulf, using seawater desalination byproducts for irrigation. His TED Talk 'Growing Tomorrow in the Desert' (3.2M views) led to $50M in international investment. Critics questioned scalability, but MIT's 2025 study confirmed his methods could make 20% of Saudi Arabia's desert arable.

He recently founded the Arid Innovators Network, a knowledge-sharing platform now used in Namibia and Nevada. His 2025 book 'The Fertile Desert' became the first Arabic-language agriculture text adopted by Harvard's sustainability courses.