Introduction

Salinity management in agriculture has been important since the introduction of irrigated agriculture. The Roman army destroyed opposing cultivations by salting the land. Old irrigated systems in the Mesopotamian plain were abandoned due to excessive salt accumulation. Traditional salinity management practices have focused on field-based solutions. The most common approach probably being to install man-made drainage systems (tile drains). Further analysis of this approach showed that this field-based attention usually simply moved the salinity problem from one place to another, and did not result in a basin-integrated solution.

The basin approach to salinity management was implemented successfully in Australia, in the Murray-Darling basin. Large scale analysis resulted in a set of locally implemented salinity management solutions. This is the only approach that has a chance to be sustainable. To enable a scale-integrated approach towards salinity management, the bio-physical system of land and water conditons and infrastructure needs to be understood, but social, economic, institutional and environmental aspects need to be understood and adapted to realize a realistic salinity management approach.

A complete salinity management framework can be used to guide national, local and field based interventions. These pages present available analyses, examples and potential solutions for the countries of Australia, Iraq, Uzbekistan, Egypt and Pakistan. This framework has been developed within the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems, but is based on many other activities by organizations and institutions worldwide.

WLE Salinity Management Framework

Introduction