The SEKEM story begins in the Egyptian desert with a tent, a tractor and a piano.

In 1977, the initiative’s founder, Ibrahim Abouleish, returned to Egypt after 20 years working abroad in chemistry and pharmacology.

At the time, Egypt was facing a dilemma. It had to feed a fast-growing population, but its agricultural sector was underdeveloped, farmland was being lost to the desert, and the overuse of pesticides and chemical fertilizers was poisoning soils.

So, on an untouched swathe of desert northeast of Cairo, Abouleish set up a tent and founded SEKEM. Named after a hieroglyph for “vitality of the sun”, the organization soon became a hotbed of biodynamic agriculture, a form of organic farming that emphasizes harmony between nature, human development and spirituality.

Abouleish’s first two investments were a tractor and – much to the bemusement of local small-scale farmers – a piano.

His son, Helmy, SEKEM’s current chief executive officer, says the piano symbolized the importance of “emotions and feelings” in reconnecting humanity with nature. The two would lead SEKEM together until Ibrahim’s death in 2017.

“For my father, it was always about building a relationship with the desert where, out of basically nothing, you create an organism,” Helmy Abouleish says with a smile during an interview with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Now, 47 years after its founding, SEKEM has blossomed into a multifaceted development organization that is helping to counter desertification, build resilient food systems, tackle rural poverty and address the climate crisis. By the end of the year, SEKEM says it will have helped 15,000 farmers switch to biodynamic agriculture since 2022, extending the practice across some 19,000 hectares of farmland.

SEKEM’s rehabilitation of degraded lands and deserts into functional and productive ecosystems provides a much-needed reprieve for imperiled ecosystems, experts say. Globally, 12 million hectares of land capable of producing 20 million tonnes of grain are lost due to drought and desertification each year.

For its efforts to address land degradation and desertification while fostering sustainable development, SEKEM has been named a 2024 Champion of the Earth – the United Nations’ highest environmental honour – in the Entrepreneurial Vision category. SEKEM is one of six laureates in the 2024 cohort .

“Too often, the way that humanity produces food is simply unsustainable. This threatens both the natural world and our long-term ability to feed ourselves,” says Inger Andersen, UNEP’s Executive Director. “SEKEM shows that it is possible to make food systems work for people and planet, which is vital for overcoming environmental crises like desertification and restoring humanity’s balance with nature.”

Sowing the seeds

For millennia, agriculture has been a cornerstone of Egypt’s economy. It provides livelihoods for 55 per cent of the country’s population, but decades of encroaching deserts, land degradation and overpopulation have made assuring food security a challenge, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

In a race to meet rising food demand and support a population in which over a quarter of people live in poverty, Egypt has long relied on the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. These are often viewed as the cheapest way to boost yields. But when overused, they can leach into groundwater and weaken soil structure, eroding land and eventually giving way to the desert.

SEKEM eschews chemical fertilizers. It works with farmers across the country to ensure a wide variety of plants and animals – from honeybees to owls – are present on farms, essentially creating mini ecosystems. SEKEM extols the benefits of plant residue and animal manure to boost crop yields. This closed cycle maintains soil health and helps make farms more resilient to desertification.

Biodynamic agriculture can also provide a much-needed boon in the fight against the climate crisis, experts say. Healthy soil is among the most effective means of storing planet-warming carbon. Soil is also home to more than 25 per cent of global biological diversity and supports most life above ground, according to the FAO .

Harvesting hope

SEKEM says it aims to help 40,000 farmers transition to biodynamic farming by the end of 2025 in partnership with the Egyptian Biodynamic Association. By 2028, the goal is to reach 250,000 farmers with farms spanning 1.6 million acres.

The scenario is a far cry from SEKEM’s early days, when biodynamic agriculture was an untested concept in Africa, says Abouleish.

“My father wanted to prove that you can rethink the economy, rethink agriculture,” he says. “He called his vision the ‘Economy of love’.”

Among SEKEM’s other endeavours is an effort to reclaim 1,000 hectares of desert and establish a self-sufficient community. With 96 per cent of Egypt’s land being desert, the aptly named “Greening the Desert” programme aims to feed tens of thousands of people while sequestering carbon.

From a tent in the untouched desert, SEKEM has burgeoned into a leading development organization. It runs schools, training centres and a university, preparing farmers and youth to combat land degradation and desertification.

SEKEM sells organic products locally and globally, and its partnerships with European banks and international alliances enables continued investment in biodynamic farming methods in Egypt. The initiative’s diverse portfolio includes specialized companies spanning natural pharmaceuticals, textiles, and more.

After Ibrahim Abouleish’s passing in 2017 – SEKEM’s 40th anniversary – Helmy Abouleish and the organization established a plan that would guide it through 2057. That plan includes extending biodynamic farming to Egypt’s 7 million farmers.

“Unless we reach them, we will not have achieved our original vision,” Abouleish says. “A lot of people told us this is a mission impossible. But we are specialists in mission impossible. We love mission impossible.”