Rethinking Rehabilitation of Salt-Affected Land: New Perspectives from Australian Experience

Abstract

Soil salinity is a major threat to the sustainability of agricultural production systems and has defeated civilisations whenever the cost of remediation exceeded the benefits. Among the reasons for this is the complexity of the plant-water-soil nexus and that the causes of salinity are often separated from the damage in time and space. There have been many activities to address salinity, and while good progress has occurred in commercially attractive irrigation areas, many apparently successful techniques, such as intercropping obligate halophytes with conventional crops, processing halophyte meals for human consumption and new uses for saline waters, have not been taken up, although the benefit in ecological terms is understood. There are limited payments available for some ecosystem services, but these are not yet a very recognised market for land users, whose agency is essential for long term success and addressing this requires institutional evolution. We conclude, from Australian experience, that a more concerted effort, perhaps initiated by a philanthropist, is needed to show merchants and agencies how a range of payments for ecosystem services can be turned into true markets in an aggregate way so the ‘knowledge of what can be done can be transformed into benefit’.

The next era of crop domestication starts now

“…Domestication of new plant species in the twenty-first century has been initiated despite resource constraints, and these efforts span plant families and types: bioenergy crops ( 150 ), cacti ( 151 ), ferns ( 152 ), halophytes ( 153 – 160 ), tree fruits and nuts ( 161 , 162 ), macroalgae ( 163 – 166 ), marine grasses ( 141 , 167 ), microalgae ( 168 ), palms ( 169 , 170 ), perennial grasses ( 171 – 173 ), perennial groundcovers ( 174 ), perennial oilseeds ( 90 , 175 , 176 ), and perennial tree and grain legumes ( 177 – 179 ).…”

Recuperação de voçorocas e de áreas degradadas, no Brasil e no mundo - estudo de caso da voçoroca do Sacavém - São Luís – MA

“…Nos últimos 50 anos, a disponibilidade de terras aráveis tem diminuído bastante, devido ao aumento da urbanização, e à degradação causada por vários problemas ambientais, colocando, em muitas circunstâncias, a agricultura como terras marginais. Na maioria dos casos, essas terras seriam aproveitadas apenas com a irrigação (EMBRAPA, 2002;LEAKE et al, 2022). A severidade das secas tem aumentado e a irrigação para a produção agrícola tem provocado o aumento da salinização.…”

“…A severidade das secas tem aumentado e a irrigação para a produção agrícola tem provocado o aumento da salinização. Dessa forma, não há muita escolha, mas fazer uso melhor das terras que já são exploradas, e aceitar o fato de que a agricultura no século XXI vai se tornar cada vez mais salina (LEAKE et al, 2022).…”