Extensive costs of salt-damaged soils include $27 billion+ in lost crop value / yr
Study identifies ways to reverse damage, says every hectare needed to feed world’s fast-growing population
Every day for more than 20 years, an average of 2,000 hectares of irrigated land in arid and semi-arid areas worldwide have been degraded by salt, a problem occurring in 75 countries, according to a study today by United Nations University’s Canadian-based Institute for Water, Environment and Health.
Today about 62 million hectares — an area the size of France, representing 20% of the world’s irrigated land — is affected by the problem, up from 45 million hectares in the early 1990s.
Salt-induced land degradation often occurs in arid and semi-arid 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.
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Scaling farmer-led irrigation requires strengthening human capacity and knowledge exchange among all actors and stakeholders involved. IWMI takes an action research approach, working with national and international research institutions, governments, extension agents and public and private organizations to co-develop the scaling ecosystem and strengthen capacity to drive scaling networks and collective action. We support theÂ