Using saline water in biosaline agriculture for food security

Abstract

Soil salinization is a worldwide problem affecting more than 830 million hectares of agricultural land, and around 1-2 million hectares per year are salt-affected, significantly reducing crop productivity and making the land inappropriate for cropping. This introduction will highlight the need to use saline water resources, and the appropriate practices to minimize their impacts on soil, plant, and the envi-ronment as well as the best management of irrigation water, soil, and crops under saline conditions. In addition, we will describe the state of the art and the most recent advances in measurements and modeling of salinity as well as examples of successful stories in managing saline water and soils.