About Us

Greening the Desert ™ was developed by the PundaZoie Company Pty. Ltd. (PZC) to bring together a broad range of ideas and agricultural experts to address the global problems of drought, salinity, famine and global warming.

The word PundaZoie is a combination of two Greek words that mean everlasting life.

The concept was developed by Gabriel Haros, a former Tasmanian Parliamentarian and lawyer and a member of a prominent Tasmanian business and manufacturing family.

In 2002, Haros invited Anastasios Anastasiou to join PZC to develop dry-land farming techniques.

Anastasiou is a graduate of University of Salonika, Greece. His knowledge and experience of dry-land farming practices stems from the early 1980’s when he was engaged to create and maintain the Royal Gardens of King Khalid in the deserts of Saudi Arabia to grow semi-tropical plants and fruit for consumption by both animals and humans.

University partnership

In 2009, PZC collaborated with the University of Tasmania (UTas) to deliver its solution for Greening the Desert™. In 2010 the partnership was awarded the prestigious Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Grant with Utas as the Lead Organisation and PZC as its Industry Partner.

The grant was provided to conduct research for a project entitled: “Halyophytes for high-saline agriculture: optimising performance and understanding the physiology.”

The project commenced in January 2010 and will run for four years, having a combined value of $1,000,000. It will be the first major trial of its kind to be conducted on such a scale anywhere in the world.

The lead scientist for the biological component of the research project is Associate Professor Sergey Shabala from the School of Agricultural Science, University of Tasmania.

Professor Shabala has published over 110 papers in international peer reviewed journals and has been a member of International Review Boards for 61 international scientific journals. His expertise is widely acclaimed by major funding bodies in many countries across the world including Australia, USA, and UK.

Professor Shabala’s area of expertise is plant adaptive responses to salinity, extreme temperatures, soil acidity, drought, water-logging, nutritional disorders & biotic stress, and he is a member of the European Halophyte Network (COST) launched in Europe in 2010.

The project leader for COST is Professor Tim Flowers, who is a Professor in Plant Physiology, School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex (UK), a world leading expert in halophyte physiology.