Soil salinity serious threats, say experts

Karnal, February 10

Wassfi Hassan El-Sreihin, secretary general, African-Asian Rural Development Organisation (AARDO), on Thursday pointed out that soil salinity and scarcity of fresh water were a serious threat to food security and environmental sustainability, especially in developing African and Asian countries, which were witnessing rapid demographic expansion and soil degradation.

He was chairing the inaugural session of the Golden Jubilee International Salinity Conference (GJISC-2019) at Central Soil Salinity Research Institute (CSSRI) here recently jointly organised by the CSSRI and the Indian Society of Soil Salinity and Water Quality.

Around 275 delegates from 17 countries participated in the event and discussed technology for salinity management.

Meanwhile, Dr Masaru Iwanaga, president, Japan International Research Centre for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS), Japan, and Dr PC Sharma, Director, CSSRI, discussed the collaboration research projects between the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), CSSRI and JIRCAS for managing salt-induced land degradation. “We have been jointly working on collaborative projects to control waterlogging and soil salinity for the last six months,” said Sharma.

Earlier, counting the adverse effect of the climatic change on natural resources, El-Sreihin said climate changes had necessitated greater efforts than before for safeguarding the productive soils and water from salinity. —TNS