The Project gains access into communities through formal institutional channels and collaborates with the communities to better understand local needs, which informs the service plan design. They leverage community resources to conduct promotional activities and post repair service notices. Service offerings cover home repair such as kitchen and bathroom renovations, plumbing, electrical work, appliance fixes, lock and screen replacement, pipe unclogging, waterproofing, as well as home installations like setting up appliance, faucet, lighting, and toilet.

Banana farming produces large amounts of waste, such as pseudostems, leaves, and slurry after fiber extraction. Instead of burning or leaving this waste to rot, Sparśa converts it into organic compost. This reduces methane emissions, helps farmers access natural fertilizers, and supports a zero-waste production cycle. 

Waste Materials Used:

1. Banana leaves (40%) – chopped into small pieces (3–50 mm). 

2. Banana trunks (unusable parts) (35%) – chopped when fresh, better to have small in length for fast decomposition 

3. Slurry (fiber extraction waste) (25%) – pressed to remove excess water. 

4. Bio-char (Optional): Carbon-rich, porous material produced by heating organic waste(Bambo) under limited oxygen conditions 

The compost recipe defines the proportion of each type of waste material mixed to create one compost pile with the correct balance of nutrients and moisture. The key goal is to achieve an ideal Carbon-to-Nitrogen (C:N) ratio between 20:1 and 35:1 (less is better) as this ratio directly affects microbial activity and the speed of composting. 

Recipe for Preparing a Compost Pile: 

Pre-process each material: Cut leaves and trunks into 3–50 mm pieces using a chaff cutter. Press the slurry to remove excess water. 

Weigh or estimate each material: Initially, use a digital scale to weigh each waste type accurately. 

Once familiar, workers can estimate quantities visually or by volume. 

Mix thoroughly: Combine materials in the defined ratio (40:35:25) to create one pile. Mix evenly to ensure uniform moisture and nutrient distribution. 

Adjust moisture: The pile should have 50–60% moisture. Add water if too dry or add dry material (leaves/trunks) if too wet. 

Mark the pile: Label each new pile with the date, batch number, and ingredients ratio for record-keeping. 

Throughout the process, records of temperature, pile conditions, and moisture are maintained using the factory’s temperature monitoring sheets. Each pile is tracked by its date and identification number for consistency. After 4-5 months, the compost becomes stable, odorless, and ready for agricultural use. It enriches soil, reduces chemical fertilizer dependence, and ensures full utilization of banana plant waste. 

The Smart DESERT project has significantly contributed to livelihood improvement and the promotion of decent work conditions, particularly through the empowerment of women via home-based businesses in agriculture and food processing. These businesses, often led by women from host communities and refugee populations, received targeted support including technical training, access to equipment, and market linkages. This enabled them to produce high-quality agricultural and food products, generate sustainable income, and improve their working environments. The initiative also fostered gender equality by encouraging women's participation in economic activities and enhancing their roles in community development. Through these efforts, the project has helped build resilient livelihoods and promoted inclusive growth in the region.

In the Smart DESERT project for women empowerment, the key success factors for empowering women through home-based agricultural and food processing businesses are deeply interconnected and collectively contribute to sustainable outcomes. Capacity building provides women with the skills and confidence to operate small businesses, while access to finance enables them to put that knowledge into practice by investing in equipment and raw materials. Technology and equipment support increases production efficiency and quality, which, when combined with improved market access, enhances income potential. Social and institutional support through cooperatives and family engagement creates a safe and motivating environment for women to participate actively in economic life. Policy and legal frameworks ease bureaucratic burdens and legitimise home-based operations, while time-saving infrastructure such as water access and childcare frees up women’s time for productive work. Finally, networking and peer learning amplify all these factors by creating platforms for experience-sharing and collective problem-solving. Together, these components form a reinforcing system that builds women's economic resilience, self-reliance, and leadership in their communities.

As part of our responsible commitment toward nature and the environment, the Smart DESERT project integrates sustainable agriculture and water harvesting techniques. These approaches are designed to optimise resource use, reduce environmental impact, and enhance resilience to climate change. Sustainable agriculture practices include the use of soilless cultivation systems, solar-powered greenhouses, and crop selection based on agroecological conditions. Water harvesting is implemented through the collection and reuse of irrigation water, contributing to efficient water management in a region facing severe water scarcity. Together, these practices support long-term environmental stewardship and promote ecological balance in the North-East Badia Highlands of Jordan.

When farmers have access to inputs and are linked to markets, the productivity gains translate into income and improved livelihoods. Community engagement and supportive policies provide a foundation for scale and sustainability. Digital tools act as cross-cutting enablers, linking knowledge, water management, and markets. In the Smart DESERT project, these interconnected elements work together to create climate-resilient communities and sustainable economic opportunities.

The clustering of farms is a modality that was adopted for the establishment of new farming activities. A farming cluster is a group of agricultural units adjoined on one site. This was designed to overcome many obstacles that individual farmers face, such as high transportation costs, fluctuating market prices, and a lack of technical capacities to address issues arising during the operation of relatively new agricultural technologies.

The farming clusters in Al Za'atari and Al Serhan municipalities in Al Mafraq Governorate (Northern Jordan), comprise a set of 58 agricultural units adjoined in two sites with a total approximate area of 60,000 m². Such a setup enables selling the products of all farmers at once to large business off-takers, thus reducing transportation costs and allowing all farm to management components to get the same quality of products.

The agricultural units are greenhouses equipped with internal soilless-culture systems and powered by solar energy, while the products are sold through a project spin-off company, named after the project (Smart DESERT Company). All farmers follow the same working steps, and conditions are controlled to the highest extent possible.

Greenhouses are equipped with internal systems for soilless-culture systems that are fully functional and produce various crops. Such a system enables the collection of return irrigation water in basins, providing an opportunity to circulate this water to irrigate the surrounding trees and an open cultivation plot.