Mr. Rustam Abdusattorov, a livestock farmer in Jizzakh Region, Uzbekistan, struggles to provide enough fodder for his flock and has to purchase feed in the market.
A seed isle of kochia and burnt swathes of Mr. Abdusattorov’s land.
Forage kochia, also known as “alfalfa” of the desert, is a source of high-calorie feed for sheep, goats and camels round the year.
Seed isles in Uzbek desert
26 July 2018
After a four-hour drive south-westwards from Tashkent, Uzbekistan’s capital, we find ourselves surrounded by empty rolled hills in the intense summer sun in the Mugol village, Jizzakh Region. As we get off the main road and drive through a snake-shaped route made of crushed gravel stones, we arrive at a farmer’s fenced land, covered with sun-baked withered grass, mildly shaking in the breeze.
One way that has been proven to hold a lot of promise is cultivation of halophytic, or salt-loving, plants. Published recently in Crop & Pasture Science, a three-year study by a team of scientists at ICBA suggests that halophytic grasses, for example, can be a good option for forage production and rehabilitation of salt-affected lands in the UAE. What is more, they produce higher yields than some traditional grasses like Rhodes grass (Chloris gayana).
How salt-loving grasses can help tackle salinity and boost forage production in UAE
26 July 2018
Soil and water salinity are a big problem in many parts of the UAE due to intensive desalination, including in agriculture, and seawater intrusion into aquifers. So much so that some farmers prefer to abandon their salt-degraded lands as traditional crops fail. The problem poses challenges to national efforts to enhance food security and self-sufficiency through local production.
With some 11m hectares of salt-affected lands, Ethiopia ranks first in Africa in terms of soil salinity caused by human activities and natural factors. This is a big problem for the second most populous country in the continent where agriculture accounts for 40 percent of the GDP, 80 percent of the total employment and 70 percent of the exports.
Salt-tolerant plants best bet to fight salinity in Ethiopia - study
17 July 2018
Salt-tolerant and halophytic (salt-loving) plants are just the job for addressing soil and water salinity in Ethiopia, a new study led by the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) has suggested.
