One-fifth of Global Farm Soil Degraded by Salt – Our World.
Salt is degrading one-fifth of the world’s irrigated land and causing around US$27.3 billion per year in economic losses, according to a new assessment from the United Nations University (UNU). That’s because every day for the past 20 years, an average of 2,000 hectares of farmland has been impacted by salt accumulation in arid and semi-arid regions across 75 countries. Now these lands currently cover about 62 million hectares — equal to the size of France.
Salt-induced land degradation occurs in regions where rainfall is too low to maintain regular percolation of rainwater through the soil and where irrigation is practiced without a natural or artificial drainage system. Irrigation that doesn’t include drainage management causes salts to stay behind in the root zone after the water has evaporated, affecting soil properties and reducing productivity.
What with all the other agricultural and food security challenges of today, this is a concerning trend. Which is why the UNU Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) has published a new study entitled The Economics of Salt-induced Land Degradation and Restoration authored by eight experts based in Canada, Jordan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
