How António Coelho Is Reviving Portugal’s Driest Soils With Syntropic Farming

In the semi-arid region of Mértola, Portugal, syntropic farmer António Coelho has transformed a struggling herb farm on desertified land into a thriving multi-layered food forest. His work restores soils, rebuilds local food systems, and inspires a new vision of climate-resilient farming in one of Europe’s most vulnerable regions.

Farming on the edge of desertification

Rain can vanish for eight months at a stretch. Summers scorch above 40°C. Shallow soils erode faster than they form. In Portugal’s semi-arid Alentejo region, decades of monoculture, overgrazing, and intensifying climate extremes have pushed many farmers to abandon their land. António Coelho chose to stay. “If the land is dying, then our job is to learn how to help it live again,” he says.

Today, on a few hectares outside Mértola, Coelho coordinates CARES, the Centre for Agroecology and Regeneration for the Semi-Arid, a project that reverses soil degradation, rebuilds local food systems, and works towards climate resilience.

Annual rainfall averages around 300 millimetres, often arriving in violent bursts after long droughts. Surrounding soils contain as little as 0.5 per cent organic matter—far below the level needed to retain water or nutrients. “When it finally rains, the soil can’t absorb it,” Coelho explains. “The water just runs off, taking fertility with it. When it doesn’t rain, everything burns.”