Irrigation has long played a key role in feeding expanding populations and is expected to play a still greater role in the future. However, is it sustainable? Can it remain in existence and function continuously and indefinitely? Some pessimists doubt that it is. This volume presents a more positive approach with carefully conditional optimism. It takes the diffuse, voluminous and disparate facts and combines them in a unified exposition. It merges physico-chemical, agronomic, environmental and economic principles into practical recommendations to help ensure the long-term viability and productivity of irrigated agriculture in arid and semiarid regions.
This open access book is an outcome of the collaboration between the Soil and Water Management & Crop Nutrition Section, Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vienna, Austria, and Dr. Shabbir A Shahid, Senior Salinity Management Expert, Freelancer based in United Arab Emirates.The objective of this book is to develop protocols for salinity and sodicity assessment and develop mitigation and adaptation measures to use saline and sodic soils sustainably. The focus is on important issues related to salinity and sodicity and to describe these in an easy and user friendly way. The information has been compiled from the latest published literature and from the authors’ publications specific to the subject matter. The book consists of six chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the terms salinity and sodicity and describes various salinity classification systems commonly used around the world. Chapter 2 reviews global distribution of salinization and socioeconomic aspects related to salinity and crop production. Chapters 3 covers comprehensively salinity and sodicity adaptation and mitigation options including physical, chemical, hydrological and biological methods. Chapter 4 discusses the efforts that have been made to demonstrate the development of soil salinity zones under different irrigation systems. Chapter 5 discusses the quality of irrigation water, boron toxicity and relative tolerance to boron, the effects of chlorides on crops. Chapter 6 introduces the role of nuclear techniques in saline agriculture.
Annotation Irrigation has long played a key role in feeding expanding populations and is expected to play a still greater role in the future. However, is it sustainable? Can it remain in existence and function continuously and indefinitely? Some pessimists doubt that it is. This volume presents a more positive approach with carefully conditional optimism. It takes the diffuse, voluminous and disparate facts and combines them in a unified exposition. It merges physico-chemical, agronomic, environmental and economic principles into practical recommendations to help ensure the long-term viability and productivity of irrigated agriculture in arid and semiarid regions.
Poor land management has degraded vast amounts of land, reduced our ability to produce enough food, and is a major threat to rural livelihoods in many developing countries. This book provides a thorough analysis of the multifaceted impacts of land use on soils. Abundantly illustrated with full-color images, it brings together renowned academics and policy experts to analyze the patterns, driving factors and proximate causes, and the socioeconomic impacts of soil degradation.
Food production on present and future saline soils deserves the world’s attention particularly because food security is a pressing issue, millions of hectares of degraded soils are available worldwide, freshwater is becoming increasingly scarce, and the global sea-level rise threatens food production in fertile coastal lowlands. Future of Sustainable Agriculture in Saline Environments aims to showcase the global potential of saline agriculture. The book covers the essential topics, such as policy and awareness, soil management, future crops, and genetic developments, all supplemented by case studies that show how this knowledge has been applied. It offers an overview of current research themes and practical cases focused on enhancing food production on saline lands. FEATURES Describes the critical role of the revitalization of salt-degraded lands in achieving sustainability in agriculture on a global scale Discusses practical solutions toward using drylands and delta areas threatened by salinity for sustainable food production Presents strategies for adaptation to climate change and sea-level rise through food production under saline conditions Addresses the diverse aspects of crop salt tolerance and microbiological associations Highlights the complex problem of salinity and waterlogging and safer management of poor-quality water, supplemented by case studies A PDF version of this book is available for free in Open Access at www.taylorfrancis.com. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
In biology, the very big global and thevery small molecular issues currently appear to be in the limelight ofpublic interest and research funding policies. They are in danger of drifting apart from each other. They apply very coarse and very fine scaling, respectively, but coherence is lost when the various intermediate levels of different scales are neglected. Regarding SALINITY we are clearly dealing with a global problem, which due to progressing salinization of arable land is of vital interest for society. Explanations and basic understanding as well as solutions and remedies may finally lie at the molecular level. It is a general approach in science to look for understanding of any system under study at the next finer (or "lower") level of scaling. This in itself shows that we need a whole ladder of levels with increasingly finer steps from the global impact to the molecular bases of SALINITY relations. It is in this vein that the 22 chapters of this book aim at providing an integrated view of SALINITY.
This book contains most of the papers presented at the Second International Conference on Sustainable Irrigation Management, Technologies and Policies, held at the University of Alicante in 2008. The meeting follows the success of the first Conference which was organised in Bologna in 2006.
