Mountains can meet: farming the desert with microbes, not fertilizers
In the harsh deserts of southern Algeria, scientists like Nadjette Djemouai are uncovering the power of native microbes to support sustainable agriculture. With support from GetGenome, they’re bringing genomics to the frontlines of climate resilience.
Farming the desert: microbes vs. chemicals
Desert agriculture is full of paradoxes. In places like southern Algeria — where the soil is poor, the water scarce, and the sun unrelenting — farmers still grow legume crops. Why legumes? Because these humble plants come with a powerful trick: the ability to partner with nitrogen-fixing bacteria that live in their roots. Together, they can thrive in nutrient-poor soils, enriching the land rather than depleting it.
But there’s a catch.
Despite this natural alliance, legume fields in desert regions are often drenched in chemical fertilizers. Farmers, understandably seeking to boost yields, may unknowingly undermine the very process that makes legumes special. Excessive fertilizer use suppresses the plant’s partnership with beneficial microbes — effectively replacing nature’s solution with a more expensive and unsustainable one.
What if we could flip this story?
Instead of sidelining these microbial allies, what if we embraced them — helped them do their job better, and convinced farmers to reduce chemical inputs? That’s where bioinoculants come in: living microbial preparations that can boost nodulation, enhance nutrient uptake, and make crops more resilient to drought and heat.
But here’s the thing: this kind of change doesn’t come from imported solutions. It starts locally — with scientists who understand the land, the crops, the constraints, and the communities.
This is the story of one of those scientists.
A scientist of the Sahara
Dr. Nadjette Djemouai knows the desert — not as a distant problem to solve, but as home. She’s a faculty member at the University of Ghardaïa, nestled in the heart of the M’zab Valley in Algeria, where palm trees cling to life between stretches of stony plains and sand. It’s here that Nadjette has carved out a niche at the intersection of microbiology and sustainable agriculture, asking big questions from a small, often overlooked corner of the scientific world.
Can beneficial microbes make crops more resilient to heat and drought? And crucially — how do we bring science out of the lab and into the hands of farmers?
Despite the challenges, Nadjette has remained determined to bring cutting-edge science to her local soils. She turned to genomics — the ultimate tool for decoding microbial life — recognizing early on that this technology offered the best path to uncover the complex bacterial communities hidden beneath the surface of arid desert lands.
Even mountains can meet
When Nadjette first reached out to us at GetGenome, she signed off with a Maghrebi proverb: “حتى الجبال تتلاقى” — “Even mountains can meet.”
It’s a saying deeply rooted in Algerian and Tunisian culture, often used when something once thought impossible becomes reality. That against the odds — even mountains, solid and unmoving — can one day cross paths.
For Nadjette, it wasn’t just a hopeful phrase. It was a vision. Why shouldn’t the microbial ecosystems of the Sahara be studied with the most advanced tools available? Why not bring genomics to Ghardaïa?
Science in these settings is more than discovery — it’s perseverance, connection, and belief.
And then it happened. Nadjette and her colleagues set out across the vast desert, collecting native strains of beneficial bacteria from the roots of legumes and wild plants. They began characterizing their symbiotic potential and testing them under the harsh conditions they’re meant to support. And this time, they did so knowing that genome sequencing was no longer out of reach — thanks to GetGenome, the microbes they sampled would soon tell their story.
A post-genomics moment
We recently caught up with Nadjette at a symposium hosted in Constantine, Algeria, by the Centre de Recherche en Biotechnologie (CRBt), supported by the Constantine Science Bridges Initiative and GetGenome.
The talks were both inspiring and deeply moving. Nadjette spoke eloquently about her research and the growing network of scientists she has helped cultivate — spanning Algeria and beyond.
Thanks to recent collaborations, Nadjette and other scientists across the region now have access to whole genome sequences of the bacteria they study. With this, they’ve entered the post-genomics era — where the real power lies not just in sequencing, but in asking new questions, building new partnerships, and designing experiments that were once out of reach.
These resources are more than just data. They’re a foundation for deeper collaboration, increased scientific visibility, and stronger competitiveness for national and international funding.
#GGMENA2024 A genomics wave across the region
Nadjette wasn’t the only scientist from the region empowered by GetGenome. As part of the #GGMENA2024 initiative — GetGenome’s Middle East and North Africa Call for Projects — researchers from six countries were supported in sequencing bacterial genomes relevant to local ecosystems and challenges.
In Algeria alone, the impact is already tangible. Alongside Nadjette’s work in Ghardaïa, GetGenome also supported a project led by Dr. Omar Messaoudi at the Research unit in medicinal plants in the University of Laghouat, just a few hundred kilometers to the north.
Omar studies desert actinobacteria — microorganisms often described as nature’s chemical factories. These bacteria produce an astonishing array of bioactive compounds, including potential antibiotics and plant growth promoters. At the symposium, Omar spoke about how genome sequencing has accelerated his efforts to identify novel metabolites and understand the biosynthetic pathways that produce them.
Across the region, these projects demonstrate a shared belief: that genomics isn’t a luxury for elite labs — it’s a catalyst for discovery in any context, when placed in the hands of local experts.
When mountains meet
What began as a hopeful proverb in an email has become a living reality. Nadjette’s journey — and the journeys of others like her — remind us that with collaboration, courage, and the right tools, even the most remote places can become hubs of innovation.
The road ahead is long, but we’re one step closer to a shared dream: empowering a new generation of scientists to confront one of humanity’s greatest challenges — climate change — with solutions rooted in local knowledge and global science.
Because when we believe that even mountains can meet, nothing is truly out of reach.
Want to help?
If you’re inspired by the stories of Nadjette, Omar, and the many other scientists driving discovery in challenging environments, consider supporting GetGenome.
There are many ways to get involved: You can volunteer to give a seminar, offer a workshop, or donate to help us expand access to cutting-edge genomics. As a registered non-profit, donations to GetGenome are eligible for Gift Aid in the UK — meaning your contribution can go even further.
Together, we can make sure that no scientist is left behind — no matter where they are.
👉 Learn more at getgenome.org
Acknowledgements
I’m grateful to the GetGenome network and to everyone who inspired this post. I’m especially thankful to Nadjette Djemouai for her inspiring work and for the poetic captions she contributed to the photos. Both Nadjette and James Canham provided valuable feedback on earlier drafts. This article was written with assistance from ChatGPT.
I dedicate this post to the Dutch molecular biologist Ton Bisseling who has supported Algerian scientists like Asma Kherfi-Nacer on the impact of salt stress and drought on barley microbiomes. Here’s an Algerian couscous recipe from Asma, which she shared with the Wageningen University community!
This article is available on a CC-BY license via Zenodo.
Cite as: Kamoun, S. (2025). Mountains can meet: farming the desert with microbes, not fertilizers. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15738063
