Crop and Forage Production Using Saline Waters/NAM S&T Centre

Salinity becomes a problem in Semiarid and arid and arid regions of the world, posing major challange to provide food for the rapidly increasing population. Inappropriate agricultural practies have resulted in increasing saline waters and saline lands, which are worthless for conventional agriculture. Excess salts accumulate in the root zone, prevents water absorption from surrounding soil and lowering the amount of water available to the plant. The most likely effect of salinity on plants is stunted growth, and physical damage or mortality may be caused at higher salt concentration. Researches conducted in last few decades reveal hundreds of salt tolerant plants in the world most of which could be utilized as cash crops using novel ideas and technologies. However, there is still a need to develop technology of saline agriculture suited to the different ecosystems of the world and major efforts are required to domesticate them using modern technology. This publication, through its 27 chapters exposes the difficulty of squeezing agricultural output, faced by mostly dry and saline parts of the world due to scarcity of clean water and fertile land for crop production. The volume also provides a facinating view on the safeguards and remedies to overcome this problem by means of modern techniques and natural resistant phenomenon of the flora in itself. The volume is chiefly based on the discussions and presentation during the International workshop on ‘Crop and Forage Production using Saline Waters in Dry Areas’ held in Birjand, Iran during 7-10 May, 2006. The information presented herein would hopefully serve as a valuable reference material for the professionals and those who are actively involved in agriculture, research and management of crop production in dry and saline areas.