The extent of the world’s land affected by excessive salt is set to grow faster with the potential for population impacts on food production, research has found.
About 1.4bn hectares (3.4bn acres), amounting to 10% of global land, is affected by salinity, with a further 1bn hectares classified as “at risk”; report of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations he found
This is already having a serious impact on agriculture, as globally around a tenth of irrigated land and a similar proportion of rain-fed crops have been affected by excessive salt. Potential crop yield losses are as high as 70% in some cases.
Some of the world’s largest and most famous countries have been particularly badly hit, including China and the US, Russia, Australia and Argentina. Central Asia is also a hotspot region, with Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan badly affected, while Iran and Sudan are also among the worst affected countries. These 10 countries account for 70% of the world’s salt-affected lands globally.
Climate breakdown and poor farming practices are to blame, FAO experts have found, in the first major assessment of the issue in 50 years. As temperatures rise, the extent of salt-affected land is likely to increase to between a quarter and a third of all land by the end of this century if current trends are not arrested.
While some salts are necessary for crops, excessive salinity reduces them soil fertility. Too much salt absorbs water, making it less readily available for uptake by plants. Salt also changes the physical structure of the soil, clumping it together and making it more vulnerable to erosion.
Lack of waterpoor drainage and excessive soil are important factors behind increasing salinity. Rising sea levels will exacerbate this by intruding salt water into coastal areas.
Farmers are often forced to practice poor practices to yield short-term pressure, which we call long-term problems. Global water use has increased by a factor of six over the past century, according to the report, and this is due to excessive irrigation of aquifers. driving groundwater salinization. Farmers are also irrigating crops with poor quality or salty water, draining too much water to feed their crops and using chemical fertilizers. Removing overgrown grass, including trees, can increase soil salinity.
The FAO found that, when tackling the climate crisis, the best way to restore soil fertility was through composting. traditional techniques such as mulching, interspersed dirt with loose material, and improved crop rotations, and included innovations; developing salt resistant cropsand use bacteriafungi and plants that remove salts or sediments.
Regenerative agriculture practices that focus on natural soil fertility could also play a role. Anand Ethirajalu, director of the Cauvery Calling project, which has trained more than 250,000 farmers in agro-ecological practices, said more government support is needed. “Without financially supporting farmers to restore their lands; [declining fertility] all those who live on food – which is all of us – will make an impact,” he said.
The report was presented at the International Soil and Water Forum, held in Bangkok on Wednesday. The fortune of the world is also this week in the bow of Saudi Arabia, where he is speaking for two weeks under the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification They were set to conclude on Friday.
Rising global temperatures are leading to worsening agriculture the earth dries up all over the world. As salinity increases and soil fertility declines, these factors combine to create unprecedented threats to food production, experts have warned.
Praveena Sridhar, chief technical officer at Save Only Moved, he said: “Global hunger is no longer a distant threat. The soil crisis is invisible to many, but its impact is felt in all corners of the world if policymakers ignore it.”