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Salinity Tolerant Crop - HALOPHYTES
Salt deserts saline inland basins are being created, the former by a lack of fresh water, and the later by the rising level of saline groundwater, According to FAO data, a least 40% of the world is affected by salinisation in some form or the other.
This trend represents a threat to the world’s food supply. Under these circumstances it becomes essential that we being to seriously consider cultivating halophytes (crops able to with stand a high salt content), and so utilize saline soil while conserving fresh water. In fact, halophytes could become an important source of food, animal feed; chemicals fine chemicals, other raw materials, and most significantly allow for the production of vegetable oil from seed bearing halophytes. Preliminary research results indicate that the oil quality of local halophyte seeds is comparable to conventionally used oils e. g. corn oil. As halophytes native to the area are better equipped to survive, cash crops halophytes could be selected from 400 local halophyte plants would produce economically valuable crops.
The coastal areas of Pakistan, including Rann, Rhar, Bella, and Makran have little or no productively. There are approximately 72,500 square kilometers of saline land, which can easily be irrigated by sea seawater (not counting inland and brackish areas) and brought under cultivation. Halophytic trees could be planted in the highly saline areas of southern Pakistan to help increase frosted areas, reclaim saline ones and provide excellent fodder. Halophytic grass also provides high quality turf, apart from stabilizing the sand dunes around the coast and beautifying the beaches.
By planting halophytic crops, Pakistan would be utilizing its saline degraded lands and low quality water sources to produce high quality Agriculture crops. With a little fine tuning in different ecological situations, supported by modern Agriculture techniques aimed at improving the quality of halophytic cash crops, saline Agriculture could become a boon for Pakistan.
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Pakissan.com;
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