Global map of salt-affected soils
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) launched the Global Map of Salt-Affected Soils, a key tool for halting salinization and boosting productivity. The map estimates that there are more than 833
Soil Salinisation
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Geoinformatics as a tool for the assessment of the impact of ground water quality for irrigation on soil health
Secondary salinisation is the most harmful and extended phenomenon of the unfavourable effects of irrigation on the soil and environment. An attempt was made to study the impact of poor quality ground water on soils in terms of secondary salinisation and availability of soil nutrients in Faridkot district of Punjab of northern India.
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Alleviation of adverse effects of salt stress on sunflower by exogenous application of Salicylic Acid
Spraying plants with the hormone salicylic acid can help them withstand excess salt in the soil, report scientists in Pakistan. External application of the chemical improves the growth of salt-stressed sunflower plants and leads to higher yields.
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Salt eats into AP coast
Ongole, July 27: Aqua culture and salt industries have turned soil saline in many parts of Prakasam district making large chunks of land unfit for cultivation. Salt cultivation is on in 7,867 acres in four mandals of the district and in the last one decade, aquaculture is also on the rise in nine mandals.
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Worrying phenomenon
Studying the data spread over 23 years (1981-2003), the Food and Agriculture Organisation has concluded that 24 per cent of the global land area has degraded. This is over and above the extent of land that had already degraded. The situation has only worsened since 1991 when the previous assessment was made. According to the FAO, in India about 592,000 square kilometres of land has deteriorated
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Duplicity
While the Agarias wage a constant struggle with the forest department, the government has allegedly turned a blind eye to pollution by two soda ash-making units run by major industrial groups. At
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Effluents from Tata
At the Tata plant in Mithapur, effluent is taken to huge mud trenches, effluent-settlement ponds, which cover about 243 ha. The liquid is supposed to go to the sea from here after suspended solids in
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High tide threatens farmers' fortunes as fields turn saline
Farmers along the Gujarat coast should have been rejoicing at the prospect of a timely monsoon. Instead, they have suddenly become gloomy after unnaturally aggressive high tides have filled their fields and ponds with saline seawater. Many fear a drinking water crisis as their ponds, meant to store fresh rain water, are now brimming over with saline water. Farmers say they may not be able to cultivate anything for years together as their fields have become saline.
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Erosion driving people to other States
The living condition of the people of Paschim Ratiadaha part-II village under Bisondoi gaon panchayat in the far western part of the Indo-Bangladesh border in Golokganj LAC of Dhuburi district are in a deplorable state as the villagers are yet to see the development even after six decades of India's Independence. The heavy-erosion of the river Gangadhar has made more than 300 families of Ratiadaaha part-II village homeless and has devastated their cultivable lands. As a result, the homeless families have to take shelter on roads and dykes.
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Distribution analysis of salt affected soils under canal and non-canal command area in a part of Etah District, U.P.
A World Bank-aided project on sodic land reclamation in Uttar Pradesh is being executed by U.P. Bhumi Sudhar Nigam, Lucknow, and Remote Sensing Applications Centre, U.P., Lucknow has the responsibility of sodic land mapping for the execution of land reclamation programme at the cadastral level.
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A new great lake--or Dead Sea?
Turkmenistan intends to create a huge lake in the desert by filling a natural depression with drainage water. Critics say it's a bad idea that could even spark a war.