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Turning Adversity into an Advantage for Food Security Through Improving Soil Quality and Providing Production Systems for Marginal Saline Lands: ICBA Perspectives and Approach

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Sustainable Agricultural Development

Abstract

Continuing population and consumption growth demand more food in the developing world, where most of the farmers are resource-poor smallholders and face multifaceted challenges to meet increasing food demand for their families and livestock from good as well as marginal/saline lands. This can be attributed to water scarcity, poor understanding of the problem, lack of access to new technology, financial constraints, and diminished soil and water quality. Owing to this menace, many farmers have set aside marginal lands and abandoned agriculture on these lands. Producing more food from the same area of land while reducing the environmental impact requires sustainable intensification. Rather than wringing their hands in despair over these problems, the scientists of the Dubai-based International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) are turning adversity into advantage by providing technical support to poor farmers through the National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) of respective partner countries in improving soil quality and by providing alternative agricultural production systems to farmers for better agricultural services, which lead to improvements of their livelihoods and food security. These practices include initial soil and water resources assessment for better understanding of resource quality to develop site-specific management plans (site preparation, use of soil amendments, leaching excess salts, salinity mapping and monitoring, nutrient management, and other cultural practices), and provision of production system that fit these conditions. The initial plan helps farmers to take necessary actions to improve and maintain soil health during the course of crop growth and to assure that soil quality is not degraded and the environment is conserved. In this chapter ICBA work and approach has been comprehensively described with examples of projects implemented around the world in IDB member countries.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Center for Biosaline Agriculture, P.O. Box 14660, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Shabbir A. Shahid

Authors
  1. Shabbir A. Shahid
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  2. Faisal K. Taha
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  3. Shoaib Ismail
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  4. Abdullah Dakheel
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  5. Mahmoud Abdelfattah
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shabbir A. Shahid .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Faculty of Law, Economics and Social Sci, Ibn Zohr University of Agadir, Hay Salam, Agadir, Morocco

    Mohamed Behnassi

  2. International Center for Biosaline Agric, Dubai, Utd.Arab.Emir.

    Shabbir A. Shahid

  3. River Court, Compassion for World Farming, Mill Lane, Goldalming, GU7 1EZ, United Kingdom

    Joyce D'Silva

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Shahid, S.A., Taha, F.K., Ismail, S., Dakheel, A., Abdelfattah, M. (2011). Turning Adversity into an Advantage for Food Security Through Improving Soil Quality and Providing Production Systems for Marginal Saline Lands: ICBA Perspectives and Approach. In: Behnassi, M., Shahid, S., D'Silva, J. (eds) Sustainable Agricultural Development. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0519-7_3

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