Huge areas of arable land have been salinated in recent decades. In other words, de facto it has become unusable for agriculture because crops can hardly grow on such soils. There are several sources, but between 5,000 and 10,000 acres of arable land are lost per day worldwide.

If irrigated with the old methods, i.e. with a lot of water and a lot of scattering loss, the evaporation is very high, especially in very warm regions of this world. What remains are the salts, which cannot evaporate with. These oversalt the soil. If there is a shortage of well water, drilling deeper and deeper is necessary. As a result, more and more minerals and salts are being added to the extracted water. The problem’s escalating everywhere around the world. Once the salinity of the soil reaches a certain level, the land can not be used for agriculture anymore.

Nowadays, a lot of drip irrigation is used when this is technically possible and necessary. The poorer countries tend to use rudimentary irrigation, see picture on the left. With this technique, the water reaches the plant in a more targeted way and is used much less. Well water with too many minerals causes problems for the irrigation system. The salts clog the nozzles, resulting in high costs for cleaning and maintenance. If maintenance is not carried out regularly, the nozzles are closed and there is no water at all to the plant. The high salt level in the well remains and the soil continues to salinate, albeit at a slower rate than before.

A farmer who struggles with the salinization of his soil and the yield of his fields most likely cannot afford computer-controlled high-tech irrigation, as shown in the picture on the right.

The first field we have rehabilitated

One of our partners near Esfahan has come into contact with a farmer who was desperate. His fields had become totally white in some places and therefore unusable. Because also his water pipe was calcified he got a ring for testing.