Table Of ContentJ.C. Dagar · P.C. Sharma
Editors
D.K. Sharma · A.K. Singh
Innovative
Saline
Agriculture
Innovative Saline Agriculture
ThiSisaFMBlankPage
J.C. Dagar • P.C. Sharma •
D.K. Sharma • A.K. Singh
Editors
Innovative Saline
Agriculture
Editors
J.C.Dagar P.C.Sharma
ICAR-CentralSoilSalinityResearch CropImprovement
Institute CentralSoilSalinityResearch
Karnal Institute
Haryana,India Karnal
Haryana,India
D.K.Sharma A.K.Singh
ICAR-CentralSoilSalinityResearch RajmataSindiaAgricultural
Institute University
Karnal Gwalior
Haryana,India MadhyaPradesh,India
ISBN978-81-322-2768-7 ISBN978-81-322-2770-0 (eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-81-322-2770-0
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Foreword
To meet the requirements of food and other agricultural commodities for a
burgeoningpopulationisabigchallengefortheagriculturalcommunityand
policymakers.Climatechangeandlanddegradationaremajorconstraintsto
increase agricultural productivity. With the increasing demand for good-
qualitylandandwaterforurbanisationanddevelopmentprojects,agriculture
will be pushed more and more to the marginal lands, and the use of poor-
quality waters for irrigation is inevitable. In most of the arid and semiarid
regions, the groundwater aquifers are also saline. Usually cultivation of
conventional arable crops with saline irrigation has not been considered
sustainable. Provision and expansion of irrigation, being the most effective
way of controlling the other agriculture production factors, have helped in
increasing food production and nutritional security. However, irrigation
without adequate drainage is leading to waterlogging and secondary
salinisation. Soil salinity is a global phenomenon and about one billion
hectares are affected by salinity. In India, around 6.75 million hectares of
area has been estimated to be salt-affected. Further, the faulty irrigation
practices and other human-induced activities would contribute to enlarge
thisareatoaround11millionhectaresbytheyear2025.Toincreasethefood
production, the salt-affected areas need to be brought under cultivation
following different reclamation approaches. Agricultural scientists have
contributed a lot for the reclamation of salt-affected lands, utilisation of
poor-quality waters and enhancement of agricultural production. Besides
the present technologies, more innovative approaches are required to deal
with emerging problems of limited land availability, finite resources for
reclamation, declining water tables, waterlogging in canal command areas,
deterioratingsoilhealth,increasingincidencesofheavymetalsincultivable
soils and underground waters and lodging of different crops due to sudden
heavydownpourleadingtofurtherdeclineincropyields.Wewouldhaveto
find ways for domestication of halophytes including seaweed cultivation as
agriculturalcropsandtodevelopmulti-stress-tolerantcropsutilisingmodern
biotechnologicaltoolsinthescenarioofclimatechange.Concertedresearch
efforts need to be made to develop appropriate planting and management
techniquessothatthedegradedsaltlandsandpoor-qualitywaterscanbeput
toalternativeuses(throughagroforestry),wheresalt-tolerantforestandfruit
trees,crops,foragegrassesandmedicinalandaromaticandotherhigh-value
v
vi Foreword
cropscanbeequallyremunerative.Suchuseshaveadditionalenvironmental
benefits including carbon sequestration, biodiversity conservation and
biological reclamation. At present, compilation efforts have been made to
synthesisetheworkdoneinvariousdisciplinesrelatedtosalinityandmodern
innovative approaches to tackle the problem and enhance agricultural
productivity.
The contributors are experts in their relevantfields and have added their
experiencestothevalueofthispublication.Isincerelyappreciatethecontri-
butionofallauthorsandtheeditorswhohavebroughtthispublicationtohigh
standard.Ihopethepublicationwillbeveryusefulforscientistsworkingin
the field of salinity, policymakers, environmentalists, educationists and
researchersforshapingthisveryimportantfieldofpresent-dayscience.
I congratulate all editors and authors for their splendid accomplishment.
Theydeserveadeepdebtofourgratitudeforthislabouroflove.
M.S.SwaminathanResearchFoundation M.S.Swaminathan
Chennai,India
Preface
There are three important threats for the agricultural community and
policymakers to meet the requirements of food and other agricultural
commodities for a burgeoning population. Firstly, the prime agricultural
land is going out of cultivation for nonfarm purposes. The second threat
comesfromglobalwarmingandclimatechange.Theimpendingchangesin
temperature,precipitationandsealevelareallcausesforconcernparticularly
for agricultural production. Different food crops are more likely to face
extreme events like drought, waterlogging and flooding within the same
cropping season on short-term basis and altered temperature and precipita-
tiononlong-termbasis.Thiswillalsoresultinincreasedincidencesofpest
and disease attack besides their altered pattern. Degradation of natural
resources including soil, water, biodiversity and nutrients would comprise
the third major threat for agricultural production. Rising scarcity of good-
quality water will envisage enhanced use of poor-quality waters in agricul-
ture.Atthesametime,weneedtomultiplyoureffortstohelpresource-poor
farmers to produce more food and other commodities under conditions of
diminishingpercapitaavailabilityofarablelandandirrigationwater.Higher
income per hectare will only be possible if the production techniques are
improved and farmers are assisted with appropriate public policies to keep
agricultureaneconomicallyprofitableandviableprofession.Further,tokeep
pacewithfoodrequirementsfortheglobalpopulation,cultivationhastobe
extended to salt-affected soils. New technologies must be developed and
refinedontargetsites,onlyfocussingonsustainabilityandhigherproductiv-
ity. Refining agricultural practices would also help mitigate climate change
effectsbyreducinggreenhousegaseousemissions.
This publication attempts to bring various issues and challenges facing
Indianagricultureespeciallyinharmonisingsynergyfromsalt-affectedsoils
andutilisationofpoor-qualitywatersforirrigationpurposes.Sofar,conven-
tionalmethodsofsurveyandreclamationofsalt-affectedsoilsarefollowed.
Modern tools and techniques need to be developed for diagnosis and prog-
nosisofsaltysoilsandpoor-qualitywaters.Forenhancingcropproductivity
fromsaltylands,processesofstimulatingsoilbiologicalprocessesanduseof
nanotechnologyneedtobeexplored.Sofarverylittleisknownabouttherole
ofmicrobiologyinsoilreclamationprocesses.Aninnovativeapproachinthe
vii
viii Preface
field of rhizosphere engineering leading to sustainable crop production in
sodic soils has been evolved and discussed. Integrated drainage solutions
involvingbiodrainageforreclaimingsalinesoilsandloweringdownofwater
tableinwaterloggedareasneedtobefoundkeepingenvironmentalissuesin
front. Possibilities of several alternatives to utilise sodic, saline and other
poor-qualitywatersneedtobeexplored.Sofar,agroforestrywasconsidered
onlyasustainablefarmingsystem,butitsotherroleasaproblem-solvingand
remunerative tool for degraded land and water resources is quite eminent
now.Besidesprovidinglivelihoodsecuritytopoorfamilies,itprovidesforan
immensescopeofenvironmentalservices.Next-generationproblemssuchas
contaminationofsoilandundergroundwaterduetofluorideandarsenichave
beenconfrontedinrecenttimeswhichneedtofindattentiononpriority.
In coastal areas, the salinity problems are more complex, and in the
scenarioofclimatechangeandsealevelrise,theseproblemswillaggravate,
andmoreandmoreareaswillturnsalineduetointrusionofseawateringood-
quality aquifers. Techniques of domestication of halophytes, mangrove-
based aquacultures, seaweed culture as agricultural crops and integrated
farming systems involving fish, livestock, poultry and ducks and
plantation-based agroforestry systems need to be perfected. We need to
developmulti-stress-tolerantcropsusingmoderntoolsofmolecularbiology
and genetic engineering. Introgression of salt- and drought-tolerant genes/
QTLs employing modern biotechnological approaches and marker-assisted
breedinginhigh-yieldingmegavarietiesofdifferentfoodcropswouldhelp
negatetheadverseeffectsofclimatechangeonfoodsecurity.
Inthispublication,alltheseaspectshavebeenaddressedindetail.Onthe
whole,differentchaptersarecompiledinamodetobringoutthediversified
role of saline agriculture in tackling complex problems of salinity and
waterloggingandsafermanagementofpoor-qualitywaters.Thepublication
containsleadpapersfromdistinguishedexperts,policymakersanddedicated
researcherswithlongexperienceintheirfieldsofwork.Effortsaremadeto
incorporate the latest information related to biosaline agriculture. We hope
thatthepublicationwouldbeofimmenseusetoresearchersinplanningtheir
future line of research, to policymakers in taking rational decisions to
implement the policies in this vital area of land and water degradation, and
to farmers and other stakeholders and students in developing awareness
regardingvitalissuesofenvironment.
The editors thank all the contributors to this volume for their excellent
effortsandtimelysubmissionofchapters.Ourspecialthanksareduetothe
IndianCouncilofAgriculturalResearchforfinancingtheNationalSeminar
on“InnovativeSalineAgricultureinChangingEnvironment”fromwherethe
ideaofcompilingthisusefulinformationwasgenerated.Wearealsothank-
fultoDr.S.Ayyappan,SecretaryoftheDepartmentofAgriculturalResearch
and Education and Director General of the Indian Council of Agricultural
Research;Dr.AlokSikka,DeputyDirectorGeneraloftheNaturalResource
ManagementDivisionofICAR;andDr.S.K.Chaudhari,AssistantDirector
General of the Soil and Water Management Section of NRM Division of
Preface ix
ICAR, for their encouragement. We are indebted to Professor M. S.
Swaminathan,ExecutiveDirector,M.S.SwaminathanResearchFoundation,
Chennai,TamilNadu,Indiawhoreadilyagreedtowritetheforewordforthis
publication.
KarnalHaryana,India J.C.Dagar
KarnalHaryana,India P.C.Sharma
KarnalHaryana,India D.K.Sharma
GwaliorMadhyaPradesh,India A.K.Singh
Description:The land degradation due to salinity and waterlogging is a global phenomenon, afflicting about one billion hectares within the sovereign borders of at least 75 countries. Besides staring at the food security, it has far reaching and unacceptable socio-economic consequences since a large proportion o
