Tackling Salinity in Sustainable Agriculture—What Developing Countries May Learn from Approaches of the Developed World
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Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Højbakkegård Allé 13, 2630 Taastrup, Denmark
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Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and Biology, Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan
3
Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Copenhagen Plant Science Centre, Thorvaldsensvej 40, 1871 Frederiksberg C, Denmark
4
AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH, Center for Health and Bioresources, Bioresources Unit, Konrad-Lorenz-Straße 24, 3430 Tulln, Austria
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sustainability 2019, 11(17), 4558; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11174558
Received: 29 July 2019 / Revised: 14 August 2019 / Accepted: 19 August 2019 / Published: 22 August 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Cropping Practices to Counteract Environmental Stresses)
Soil salinity is a common problem of the developing world as well as the developed world. However, the pace to reduce salinity is much slower in the developing world. The application of short-term approaches with an unsustainable supply of funds are the major reasons of low success. In contrast, the developed world has focused on long-term and sustainable techniques, and considerable funds per unit area have been allocated to reduce soil salinity. Here, we review the existing approaches in both worlds. Approaches like engineering and nutrient use were proven to be unsustainable, while limited breeding and biosaline approaches had little success in the developing countries. In contrast, advanced breeding and genetics tools were implemented in the developed countries to improve the salinity tolerance of different crops with more success. Resultantly, developed countries not only reduced the area for soil salinity at a higher rate, but more sustainable and cheaper ways to resolve the issue were implemented at the farmers’ field. Similarly, plant microbial approaches and the application of fertigation through drip irrigation have great potential for both worlds, and farmer participatory approaches are required to obtain fruitful outcomes. In this regard, a challenging issue is the transition of sustainable approaches from developed countries to developing ones, and possible methods for this are discussed.
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MDPI and ACS Style
Shokat, S.; Großkinsky, D.K. Tackling Salinity in Sustainable Agriculture—What Developing Countries May Learn from Approaches of the Developed World. Sustainability 2019, 11, 4558. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11174558
AMA Style
Shokat S, Großkinsky DK. Tackling Salinity in Sustainable Agriculture—What Developing Countries May Learn from Approaches of the Developed World. Sustainability. 2019; 11(17):4558. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11174558
Chicago/Turabian StyleShokat, Sajid, and Dominik K. Großkinsky 2019. "Tackling Salinity in Sustainable Agriculture—What Developing Countries May Learn from Approaches of the Developed World" Sustainability 11, no. 17: 4558. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11174558
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