1. THE ROLE OF BIOSALINE AGRICULTURE TO COPE WITH WATER
SCARCITY IN THE WANA REGION
Faisal Taha and Shoaib Ismail
International Center for Biosaline Agriculture,
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Water Scarcity and Management
The allocation of the valuable fresh water resource vis-à-vis the demands has become a
critical issue for the last two decades. The prioritization of different water-use sectors, the
inclusion of new water use sectors and the availablity of limited water resources had a direct
impact on the agriculture sector that uses 70-80% of the fresh water worldwide, and 80-90%
in the WANA region. Many water-scarce countries have been tapping the shallow- and deep-
aquifers (non-renewable) to meet their growing demand for water. This water has been
used for all the sectors to meet the deficit and as a result un-controlled abstraction has led
to intrusion of sea water and other marginal water in the aquifers. Thus, the quality of the
water has deteriorated significantly. Furthermore, as this water becomes more and more
salinized, the impact on conventional agricultural production becomes more and more
evident in terms of reduced quantity and quality of agricultural commodities.
Available renewable water resources per capita across North Africa, the Middle East, and
South/Central Asia are the lowest in the world and will decrease further with continuing
strong economic and population growth in the region (Figure 1). The West Asia and North
Africa (WANA) region are currently at 1,100 m3 per year and projected to further drop by
half by 2050.
Aus/NZ
LAC
N America
ECA
SSA
EAP
W Europe
SA
WANA
0 5 15
10 20 25 30 35
1000 m3 / year
Figure 1. Annual renewable water resources worldwide.
(Source: FAO Aquastat)
In order to have a balance between the water resources available and the water-use sectors,
it is imperative to (i) prioritize the water needs sector-wise; and (ii) look for additional or
new water resources. The latter will include ‘marginal water’ or poor-quality water,
including saline/brackish water and wastewater that can be either (i) supplemented with
fresh quality water; and/or (ii) replace the fresh water for growing certain crops/production
systems.
This paper will focus on marginal quality water and land resources, and their contribution to
reducing the demands on fresh water for agriculture in the water-scarce WANA region.
Clearly there is a need to re-think the ways in which saline water can be used for irrigation
F. Taha and S. Ismail, 2011 WANA Forum Consultation 1
Medenine, Tunis, February 2011

2. and to develop appropriate technical and policy options for productive use in arid
environment.
Biosaline agriculture and its potential under water scarce condition
Salinity has been known to significantly reduce agricultural production worldwide.
Significant portion of arable land have been salinized to different extent because of water
management issues, whether that is linked to irrigation practices or inefficient drainage
systems. Five percent of world’s cultivated lands are salt affected (Suarez, 2010; Taha and
Ismail, 2010; Ghassemi et al., 1995). In addition, about 20% of land within the irrigated area
is affected by salinity problems with over 30% decrease in productivity. Furthermore 2 m.ha
of irrigated land are lost annually due to salinization (Postel, 1997).
The International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) mandated to work in 56 countries,
most of them being in the arid and semi-arid regions has been emphasizing the inventory of
marginal (mainly saline) water resources in WANA. The target regions have been the WANA/
CWANA, GCC, SEA and the CAC regions. In its attempt to look at the potential of using
saline/brackish water for agricultural production systems, it undertook a study (ICBA, 2003;
Stenhouse and Kijne, 2006) to investigate the saline water resources in some WANA
countries (Table 1). The study showed that approximately 14% of the irrigated area in the
target countries has the potential to be used for ‘biosaline agriculture’, where the salinity of
the groundwater ranged from 3000-16,000 ppm (~ 4 – 23 dS.m-1).
Biosaline agriculture is a specialized form of agriculture whereby crops and cropping
patterns are adjusted to the prevailing conditions of saline/brackish water and land amd
hence the system has minimal, is any use of fresh water and hence the system has minimal,
if any use of fresh water. In addition to having conventional/non-conventional/specialized
crops/plants, an important component is the management of land and water resources to
optimize the production and make it environmentally safe. This leads to three important
factors, the given scenarios of climate change, the prevailing land and water quality, the
targeted production system (the crops to be grown and the market for the crops).
Biosaline agriculture focuses on the development and propagation of sustainable vegetative
alternatives for salt-affected lands that are deemed unsuitable for conventional farming,
including: (i) more effective soil/water management and improved crop salt-tolerance, and
(ii) the domestication of halophytes for commercial and/or environmental cultivation. The
ultimate goal of this discipline is to help provide food and water security for future
generations by conserving and rehabilitating scarce resources (water and arable land) ,
substituting them for more abundant saline ones in newly emerging agro-ecosystems.
Two approaches have been associated with the concept of improving agricultural production
systems; (i) improving/developing high yielding crops/varieties – these are usually less
tolerant to environmental stresses; and (ii) developing/adapting crops and systems to the
prevailing stress conditions. It is widely accepted that the first approach may be feasible up
to certain extent of stress (salinity) levels, since most of the crops (glycophytes) have a
genetic make-up that has been pushed up to its maximum threshold for salinity tolerance.
The threshold salinity level only in case of some species have made a real progress,
otherwise for most of the species, the increase in tolerance limit has not been significant
(Table 2). Flowers and Yeo (1995) suggested options to develop salt tolerant crops in terms
of priorities: (1) develop halophytes as alternative crops; (2) use inter-specific hybridization
to raise the tolerance of current crops; (3) use the variation already present in existing crops;
(4) generate variation within existing crops by using recurrent selection, mutagenesis or
tissue culture, and (5) breed for yield rather than tolerance.
F. Taha and S. Ismail, 2011 WANA Forum Consultation 2
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3. Table 1. Availability of brackish water resources in some of the WANA countries.
Country Usable Brackish Salinity Range Basin(s) Equivalent Fresh Potential Land for Total Irrigated Percent Potential
1 2 3 4 Land for Biosaline
Water Resources Water Volume Biosaline Agriculture Area (1990)
Agriculture of Total
Irrigated Area
3 3
(million m /year) (ppm) (million m /year) (Hectares) (Hectares)
Col. 1 Col. 2 Col. 3 Col. 4 Col. 5
(1-LR)x Col. 1 Col. 1/WR Col. 3/ Col. 4
Jordan 246 3,000 - 10,000 Jordan Valley, 197 25,900 63,000 41%
Wadi Araba,
Southern Ghors
Syria 768 4,000 - 8,000 Palmyra, Sewwanah 640 74,600 693,000 11%
Oman 320 6,000 - 15,000 Najd, Central 256 25,200 58,000 43%
Region
Yemen 300 3,000 - 8,000 Tihama Plain 250 38,500 348,000 11%
Algeria 470 4,000 - 16,000 Souf Valley, 392 87,000 384,000 23%
Ouargla Basin,
Oued Rhir Valley
Libya 208 > 5,000 Ghadames Area 173 33,000 470,000 7%
Tunisia 333 5,000 - > 7,500 South and Central 278 47,600 300,000 16%
Regions
Total 2,645 3,000 - 16,000 2,185 331,800 2,316,000 14%
1
Calculated as follows: ICBA, 2003; Stenhouse and Kijne, 2006
Source:
Jordan: 225 million non renewable from Sandstone aquifers, 20 million Jordan Valley Zerqa group, 1 million Wadi Araba Alluvium
Syria: 750 million annual recharge for various aquifers, 18 million Palmyra, Sewwanah areas
Oman: 260 million annual rechargeto improving agricultural production within regions.
Another approach for Al Batinah and Salalah, 60 million for Najd and Central the context of biosaline
Yemen: 250 annual recharge for varioustowards the environment-based strategies where crops are
agriculture is to move aquifers, 50 million in Wadi Tuban Delta
Algeria: drainage water estimated as 10 percent of total water used for irrigation in the South
selected/developed based on specific site criteria’s. This has become more important since
Libya: estimated as return water, 10 % of total water applied for irrigation
Tunisia: 194 million drainage water fromis farRejim Maatoug, the development of 85 million renewable(conventional
the increase in salinity Jerid, rapid than Tozeur, Kebili, and Gabes, crops/species South and
crops). In general, most of unused deep aquifers
Central phreatic aquifers, 54 million the irrigated areas that have turned saline either are newly saline
2
3
areas (EC: 4-10 dS.m-1) or that and gone %) depending on salinity range
Leaching requirement (LR) varies between 0.2 (20 %) has0.25 (25 through the process of secondary salinization, with
Average annual water requirements (WR) are: 0.95 m for Jordan, 1.03 m for Syria, 1.27 m for Oman, 0.78 m for Yemen, 0.54 m for Algeria, 0.63 m for Libya,
salinity ranges between 10-25 dS m-1). There also exist areas where salinity is more than 25
and 0.70 m for Tunisia. These factors were taken from IWMI Research Report 19 (1998).
-1
IWMI Researchm and only limited type of agricultural production systems can be practiced successfully.
dS Report 19 (1998).
4
Crops and production systems can be placed into different categories based on the genetic
make-up of the plants and the salinity tolerance levels. These include food, feed/forage,
fuel, oil, fiber crops, landscaping, etc. Most of the horticultural crops fail to grow
economically beyond 5-6 dS m-1, whereas, a number of glycophytic crops can grow up to 10
dS m-1 salinity level. The latter group still requires land and water managements to avoid any
salinity build-up over period of time. At salinities of 10-25 dS m-1, the major categories of
production system includes forage and landscaping plants (few glycophytes and mostly
halophytes), whereas, at higher salinities of >25 dS m-1, only halophytes can support forage,
fuel and coastal rehabilitation systems. Sea-water based production systems are very few.
A number of studies have been undertaken looking at the potential of ‘using salt-affected
lands and saline irrigation water’ for agriculture, or in other cases are ‘practicing’ agriculture
under saline conditions (since no other alternatives are present). The following section will
give a brief of recent biosaline agriculture work, and more specifically in the WANA region
(where ICBA has been working with partner countries).
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4. Table 2.Salt tolerance of some of the crop species.
Maas and Hoffman, 1977 Maas, 1986 Anonymous, 2003
Plant Species Threshold (dS/ Slope (% Threshold Slope (% Threshold Slope (%
m) dS/m) (dS/m) dS/m) (dS/m) dS/m)
Festuca eliator 3.9 5.3 3.9 5.6
(Tall Fecsue)
Glycine max 5.0 20.0 5.0 20.0
(Soybean)
Helianthus 4.8 5.0 5.5 25.0
annuus
(Sunflower)
Hordeum 6.0 7.1 7.4 9.6
vulgare
(Barley forage)
Lycopersicon 2.5 9.9 2.3 18.9
lycopersicum
(Tomato)
Oryza sativa 3.0 12.0 3.8 5.1
(Rice)
Sorghum 6.8 16.0 7.4 8.4
bicolor
(Sorghum)
Trifolium 1.5 5.7 2 10.3
alexandrinum
(Berseem)
Development of Biosaline Agriculture in the WANA region:
With increase in salinity levels of water and soil, it becomes less economical to grow alfalafa,
maize and other conventional forage grasses, because of high water needs and relatively
lower yield (being low to moderately salt tolerant). In some cases, more salt tolerant plant
species are available but their water requirements are still very high (e.g. Rhodes grass).
Alternate forage production systems are therefore essential to be introduced under such
salinity conditions. These plant species needs to be salt tolerant, have a high water use
efficiency, should have a good forage quality (in terms of digestibility an palatability), should
not have any negative environmental impact and should make the whole system
economically viable.
These ‘alternative production systems’ could be categorized into two; (i) the conventional
forages (including dual purpose crops and other salt tolerant glycophytic forages); and (ii)
non-conventional forages (including salt tolerant grasses, shrubs, trees and halophytes).
The conventional forage that has been tested by ICBA in WANA region and introduced in
farming system mainly include, barley, sorghum, pearl millet, triticale, sugar beet. Legumes
mainly include, Sesbania and Leuceana. Studies have shown that a number of accessions of
Leuceana studies have shown a large variation in dry matter productivity. The species L.
collinsii, L. lanceolata, L. lempirana, L. macrophylla, L. magnifica, L. shannonii and
L. trichoides all had high dry matter digestibility (>65%), low levels of non-digestible fiber
(<26%) and low concentrations (<1.5%) of condensed tannins (Dalzell et al., 1998). Barley,
sorghum and pearl millet have shown an excellent potential in many regions, from Central
Asia to the Mediterrneian region, both in terms of high yield and good forage quality at
salinity levels ranging from 8-15 dS/m (ICBA, 2007, 2008).
The non-conventional forages have been widely screened, developed and introduced in
different farming production systems. The most common species includes the grasses
(Distichlis, Sporobolus, Paspalum, Leptochloa, Chloris, Lollium, Festuca, etc.) studied
worldwide (Taha and Ismail, 2010; Suyama etc al., 2007; Alhadrami et al., 2005). Productivity
F. Taha and S. Ismail, 2011 WANA Forum Consultation 4
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5. ranges vary from low to high (10-40 tons dry matter.ha-1.yr-1) depending upon climate, soil
texture and salinity, irrigation water quality and quantity, and management practices
applied.
Salt tolerant tree legumes and other fast growing tree species has received a lot of attention
for forge production and rehabilitation of degraded saline wastelands. Among them, Acacia
and Prosopis species have been most extensively studied, especially under dry and saline
conditions, both for yield and nutrient values (Craig, et al., 1991). For most of the species
studied the in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD) was >40% with crude protein ranging
between 8-17% of dry matter.
Acacia ampliceps is reported to grow in different salinity ranges, with 40%-60% survival in
northern Queensland at ECe up to 20 dS.m-1 or higher (House et al. 1998); under dry arid and
semi-arid conditions of the UAE, with > 95% survival, irrigated with water of salinity ranging
between ECiw 30 and 35 dS.m-I (lCBA 2006, 2007); and in the Central Kyzylkum desert of
Uzbekistan, grown with drainage water salinities ranging between ECiw 12.5 and 18.1dS m-I
(Toderich et al., 2009). Ismail et al., (2007) has reported various responses of the A.
ampliceps seedlings when grown on lighter soils in UAE, Jordan, Syria, Oman, and Tunisia,
with > 95% survival after 4-years at ECe of 10-25dS m-1.
ICBA have initiated many multi-countries project activities with the National Agricultural
Research (NAR’s) program for (i) testing different alternate production systems; (ii)
implementing integrated management program of land, water, crops and livestock; (iii) local
seed production of salt tolerant crops, forages and halophytes.
The IFAD supported ‘Forage project’ looked at the potential of growing forage using saline
water in seven countries (Jordan, Oman, Syria, Pakistan, Palestine, Tunisia and United Arab
Emirates). The project focused on four important factors; (i) eradicating poverty and hunger;
(ii) promoting gender equality; (iii) ensuring environmental sustainability; and (iv) developing
global partnership. The initial focus was to identify, evaluate and introduce salt tolerant
forage (both conventional and non-conventional) species, under saline conditions, in the
partner countries through the national agricultural system. The second phase was to select
the successful genotype of the different species, multiply them and upscale activities in
farmer’s field. As a result of this, many genotypes of sorghum, pearl millet, alfalfa, brassica,
canola, fodder beet among conventional forage have been identified and propagated.
Grasses from the genus Cenchrus, Panicum, Paspalum, Sporobolus, Distichlis; shrubs
including Atriplex spp.; and tree species of Acacia ampliceps have been introduced on large
scale in the salt-affected farmer’s fields.
The Oman Salinity Strategy (OSS) project looks at developing both short- and long-term
strategies for improving agricultural production in the Sultanate of Oman. Most of the
current agricultural areas are facing soil and water salinity problems and there is a decline in
the yield of its major crops. The strategy looks from an ‘integrated approach’ of the available
land and water (both quality and quantity) resources and present scenarios for continuing
and/or changing the currently practiced agricultural production systems. This would be
based on hydrology of the areas and the sustainability of aquifers; the abstraction of ground
water related to the intrusion of sea water leading to increased salinity problems; the
current state of agricultural production; and the socio-economic factors. Based on the
analyses, the strategy would provide a guideline to (i) improve the management practices –
site specific related to salinity problems; (ii) improved genotypes of crops required to
improve production under prevailing salinity conditions; (iii) mitigation efforts to reduce the
process of salinization, especially the secondary salinization as a result of irrigation practices;
and (iv) the impacts of the current agricultural practices on the socio-economy of farmers
and on the environment – and vice versa.
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6. ICBA in collaboration with European and Asian partners are part of the BIOSAFOR project to
look into the potential of salt tolerant plans for biomass – bioenergy. The project is funded
by the European Union Commission. The project looks into the whole approach of applying
biosaline agroforestry (for bioenergy) on a local, regional and global perspective related to
the different type of salinity conditions. The project provided the baseline information on:
A number of tree species/varieties/accession was identified through screening (up to 40
dS.m-1) and case-study areas to look at the regional and global potential of using the
wastelands with least management to make it economical. Description and categorization of
brackish water resources for biosaline (agro) forestry production has been prepared to look
at the potential areas in the world where susch system can be economically viable.
Other activities included the potential role of ‘saline-produced water’ (water from oil
industry) which after cleaning and removal of hydrocarbons, heavy metals and other
pollutants can be used for non food-chain agricultural production systems (including wood,
fiber, landscaping etc.). The process involving phytoremediation through water management
involves the degradation of pollutants through microbial activities, has been demonstrated
by ICAB in Nimr, Sultanate of Oman. The ‘produced water’ (~10-16 dS.m-1) was used to grow
salt tolerant tree-based production systems.
The use of ‘returned seawater’ (seawater from prawn farms) at the facility of the National
Prawn Company (NPC) in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is another example of using the highly
mineralized sea water for halophytic forage production system. The facility located at the
coast of Red Sea produces return water @ of 80 m3.s-1. This water was used with/without
dilution to initially irrigate wind breaks (Conocarpus and Salvadora) followed by forage
grasses (Sporobolus virginicus and Distichlis spicata).
Conclusions:
Biosaline agriculture will play an important role in the future of agriculture in many arid and
semi-arid countries and present an excellent opportunity to relief pressure from dwindling
fresh water resources. . All further expansion and/or sustaining the current agricultural areas
will largely depend on how marginal and saline land/water are used for improving food, feed
and fuel demands. Improvement in genetic makeup through conventional breeding,
biotechnology, etc will remain focussed for high value crops, whereas, forage and fuel
production sector will eventually be limited to use of the marginalized land and water
resources. Effective management practices and better genotypes (selected from wide range
of wild species) followed by on-farm optimization for yield, will be the key to provide
immediate relieve to the farmers as short-term strategy. In spite of all the development, a
long-term planning for agriculture (other than food) represnets a major challenge to the
professionals and others to come with feasible solutions for sustainable production systems
using marginal resources.
F. Taha and S. Ismail, 2011 WANA Forum Consultation 6
Medenine, Tunis, February 2011

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