Editing Arable land (section)

===Land conversion===
Land incapable of being cultivated for the production of crops can sometimes be converted to arable land. New arable land makes more food and can reduce [[starvation]]. This outcome also makes a country more [[self-sufficient]] and politically independent, because food importation is reduced. Making non-arable land arable often involves digging new irrigation canals and new wells, aqueducts, [[desalination]] plants, planting trees for shade in the desert, [[hydroponic]]s, fertilizer, nitrogen fertilizer, [[pesticide]]s, [[reverse osmosis]] water processors, [[PET film (biaxially oriented)|PET film]] insulation or other insulation against heat and cold, digging ditches and hills for protection against the wind, and installing greenhouses with internal light and heat for protection against the cold outside and to provide light in cloudy areas. Such modifications are often prohibitively expensive. An alternative is the [[seawater greenhouse]], which desalinates water through evaporation and condensation using solar energy as the only energy input. This technology is optimized to grow crops on desert land close to the sea.

The use of artifices does not make the land arable. Rock still remains rock, and shallow{{snd}}less than {{convert|6|feet|abbr=off}}{{snd}}turnable soil is still not considered toilable. The use of artifice is an open-air non-recycled water hydroponics relationship.{{clarify |date=November 2019 |reason=Unclear what this sentence means}} The below described circumstances are not in perspective, have limited duration, and have a tendency to accumulate trace materials in soil that either there or elsewhere cause deoxygenation. The use of vast amounts of fertilizer may have unintended consequences for the environment by devastating rivers, waterways, and river endings through the accumulation of non-degradable toxins and nitrogen-bearing molecules that remove oxygen and cause non-aerobic processes to form.

Examples of infertile non-arable land being turned into fertile arable land include:
* [[Aran Islands]]: These islands off the west coast of Ireland (not to be confused with the [[Isle of Arran]] in Scotland's [[Firth of Clyde]]) were unsuitable for arable farming because they were too rocky. The people covered the islands with a shallow layer of seaweed and sand from the ocean. Today,{{When|date=July 2021}} crops are grown there, even though the islands are still considered non-arable.
* Israel: The construction of [[desalination]] plants along Israel's coast allowed agriculture in some areas that were formerly desert. The desalination plants, which remove the salt from ocean water, have produced a new source of water for farming, drinking, and washing.
* [[Slash and burn]] agriculture uses nutrients from the wood ash, but these are exhausted within a few years.
* [[Terra preta]], fertile tropical soils produced by adding charcoal.