Today the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) and South Korea’s Rural Development Administration (RDA) formed a strategic partnership to work on advanced knowledge and technology exchange for biosaline research and development in the UAE and South Korea.

Mr. Showkat Nabi Rather, Journalism and Media Outreach Specialist at the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA), has recently won a scholarship to do a program in persuasive communication for technology professionals at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, USA.

The International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) has contributed a number of seminal scientific books from its collection to the

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.

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.