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Salt-affected soils: threats and potentials

Proceedings of the joint meeeting of INSAS and SUSTAIN – Valencia, Spain | May 27–31, 2024










FAO. 2024. Salt-affected soils: threats and potentials – Proceedings of the joint meeting of INSAS and SUSTAIN. Valencia, Spain, May 27–31, 2024. Rome.




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    The development of agricultural technologies and a better appreciation of the existing but under-utilised knowledge of resource management will be crucial in meeting the ecological needs and in achieving the anticipated food demands of the growing population in the future. The greatest challenge for the coming decades lies in the fact that the production environments are unstable and degrading. Land degradation is proceeding so fast that unless policies and approaches change, many countries will not be able to achieve sustainable agriculture in the foreseeable future. Soil salinization has been identified as a major process of land degradation. The greatest technical causes of decreasing production on many irrigated projects particularly in arid-semi-arid areas, or failure of large areas in rainfed agriculture, are waterlogging, salinization and sodication.
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    Naturally saline or sodic soils host valuable ecosystems, including a range of rare plants, that are adapted to the extreme conditions. However, salt-affected soils may develop quickly in response to human activities. Soils may thus become affected by salinity and sodicity due to inappropriate management or through saline water intrusion from sea, river or groundwater and undergo a rapid decline of health, losing their capacity for biomass production, natural filtration, carbon sequestration and other necessary ecosystem functions. This third issue of the ITPS letters demonstrates how in some regions adverse effects of soil salinity and sodicity will likely be exacerbated by climate change and have further impacts on the prices of commodities produced in vulnerable areas while increasing mass migration of peoples in the future. It also highlights how FAO and its Global Soil Partnership are currently addressing this through a range of activities, including the recently launched International Network of Salt-Affected Soils (INSAS) and the development of the Global Map of Salt-Affected Soils that will provide an improved assessment of the salinity status of the world’s soils.
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    The threats posed by salt-affected soils to global food security are dire. According to the recent Global salt-affected soils map, over 424 million hectares of topsoil (0–30 cm) and 833 million hectares of subsoil (30–100 cm) are currently salt-affected. This practical guide to soil and water management in salt-affected areas provides vital information to farmers dealing with salinity and sodicity issues on their farms and assists them in following suggested practices to mitigate or/and to adapt to these unfavourable conditions without compromising further losses in yields.

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