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Prospects of Saline
Agriculture in the Arabian Peninsula
Edited by Faisal K. Taha, Shoaib Ismail,
Abdullah Jaradat
US $79.95, 2004, 576 pp. ISBN: 1-884940-32-3
This Proceedings presents a
comprehensive review of the prospects for saline agriculture
in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. In the six Gulf
Cooperation Council counties of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman,
Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, only 170 –
200 cubic meters of renewable water resources are available
per person per year. This is less than 3 percent of the
global average.
Nevertheless, agriculture still
consumes the largest proportion of the freshwater in the
region. The withdrawal for irrigation in the six Gulf
Cooperation Council countries is 85 percent. Only 15 percent
is used for domestic and industrial purposes.
Unfortunately the use of
freshwater for agriculture per person is higher in the Gulf
Cooperation Council countries than the global use per person
because of the aridity and high summer temperatures over
much of the region. Thus, irrigation in agriculture assumes
a greater significance. Even in areas where the
environmental conditions preclude intensive agriculture,
there is a growing demand for water in horticulture and
landscaping. In the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries,
the area planted to horticultural crops increases by 12 – 15
percent per annum form 1980 to 1999.
Hence, saline agriculture will
become increasingly important because, in the Arabian
Peninsula, water resources will be exhausted within the next
20 years unless consumption of fresh water is reduced.
Recent advances in biosaline
agriculture and salt-tolerant crops now merit assessment of
saline water resources and their potential for agricultural
use. Moreover, there have been rapid advances around the
world in the use of saline water for irrigation, including
development of irrigation systems, improved water management
and control of salinity within the root zone.
Biosaline agriculture
technologies use salty water productively. Plants that
tolerate salt in water and soil are being evaluated for
productive use, perhaps replacing varieties that will only
grow in sweet soil irrigated by fresh water. If economically
useful plants are grown with salty water on saline land,
more food and feed can be made available globally and land
abandoned because the soil has become saline can be put to
economic and sustainable agricultural use. Making the use of
saline water for agriculture will relive pressure on the
scarce freshwater resources.
This Proceedings is therefore
timely and makes an important contribution to furthering the
development of agriculture using saline water. The papers
will proved and invaluable reference and source of
information.
Thanks and appreciation are
extended to the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), the
International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry
Areas (ICARDA), and the Ministry of Agriculture and
Fisheries (MAF), in the United Arab Emirates for their
support for the Symposium and this Proceedings.
Dr. Mohammad Al-Attar
Chairman, Board of Directors, and Director General
International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA)
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