Let's pretend a large international organization has tasked a newly employed software developer to look into the feasibility of performing ERW in the Sahel. Now this let's say this software developer, who has no geological background whatsoever, is trying to figure out what it would take to run a ERW pilot in the Sahel and decided to investigate Bol, Chad to have a specific place to focus on.
Ideally, this pilot would seek to test two things (i) is ERW feasible to perform in the region of conflict, (ii) does the crushed basalt or silicate, which is added to the soil, increase crop yield?
In order to determine if this pilot is feasible to even consider I think the following should be investigated:
What else should I look at?
If you were given this (completely hypothetical) task where would you start?
Is there any giant red flag I am missing which would be enough of a reason not to move forward with a pilot?
Using planes to lift 100 tonnes of dust per day may be cheaper than using trucks (a 747 can lift 112 metric tonnes).