Combating the Root Cause: Tackling Soil Salinity for Advancing Agriculture in Saudi Arabia

The total area of the country is 215 million hectares, and less than one million hectares is currently under cultivation with several crops including date palm, cereals, forages, open field vegetables, and Mediterranean, subtropical, and tropical fruits. Most cultivated lands are calcareous with limited soil depth, moderate to high soil pH, low organic matter content, not well-developed soil structures with low nutrients content. Besides limited cultivated area, there are serious natural and human-caused limitations and challenges for agriculture. One of the most pronounced problems of desert cultivation in Saudi Arabia is soil salinity and its severe implications on agricultural productivity. Soil salinity is widely spread all over the country (more than 70 percent of the fields surveyed in south and north) and has a significant negative effect on crop yields of 17 percent to 38 percent.

The ongoing Sustainable Rural Agriculture Development (SRAD) project implemented by the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture (MEWA), Saudi REEF and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is addressing the challenges of agricultural productivity and improving rural livelihoods while managing the vital natural resources. Management of soil salinity and its effect on crop production is an important area along with water management, soil nutrition and other inputs. The project is introducing good practices including micro irrigation to reduce overwatering and sensitizing on providing adequate drainage and judicious application of fertilizers to manage soil salinity issues. The farmers and extension agents are being empowered for tackling soil salinity including the causes of salinity, its harmful effects on soil and crop production and the solutions to overcome this problem such as the improvement of the drainage systems of irrigated agricultural land and the introduction of precise and accurate fertility programs. One of the problems noted in the course was the lack of adequate information on soil salinity management in desert agriculture. Local farmers and other stakeholders need the basic information on soil salinity, in Arabic, to be able to apply the good practices for sustainable agriculture production.

The SRAD Rainfed Cereals team has developed an informative soil salinity manual in Arabic that deals with the important aspects of soil salinity including the causes, the harmful effects, and the practical solutions implementable at local level to tackle this problem is desert agriculture. This manual is intended for local stakeholders and will also be extremely useful for all Arabic speaking stakeholders. Dr. Abdulla Alhendi, Technical Expert, Rainfed Cereals component of SRAD emphasized that soil salinity issue in desert cultivation is very delicate and detrimental to crop productivity if not tackled and solved very professionally.

Salinity is increasingly turning into a big abiotic challenges in Saudi Arabia that needs urgent attention. This publication provides pragmatic solutions that can have large implications for increasing productivity with resilience and management of land and vital natural resources in a sustainable manner.

Read more here: https://doi.org/10.4060/cd3029ar to publication "Soil salinity: A guide on its harmful effects and prevention methods."