I recently saw that video too. I think we get recommended the exact same videos or something because I've noticed we watch more of the same videos that anyone else I know.

But I had a thought when I watched that. There is another solution to low water availability in the desert. Not having people there. If people move to where water is abundant naturally then we don't have to burn fuel to make agriculture work where it shouldn't.

If you add this technology then people move there and then you have people dependent on that technology.

There is a problem right now in Pakistan where there is almost enough water that agriculture seem viable and was at one point. But the water table got too low and so out of desperation farmers have been adding generators to their wells to try to pump the water out from deeper. The water table gets even deeper and absurd amounts of fuel is wasted trying to make farms work that shouldn't. It's sad because giving up means the worst possible outcome for those farmers. So to me it seems if an area is on the edge of being able to support agriculture its better to not start it in the first place. So I don't see much value in taking an area that is far from supporting agriculture into a place that's on edge for supporting it. Because the land that's on edge seems to just wreck people and creates situations down the line where people out of desperation do things that are bad for the environment at a scale that isn't worth the their tiny yield, where even I not being an environmentalist have to say this is just plain stupid.