Abstract form

Biosaline agriculture for biomass and biomaterials production to
generate energy from salt affected soils: Indian experience
Gurbachan SINGH
Director, Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal-132 001, India
Contact e-mail: director@cssri.ernet.in
Nearly 1000 million ha area covering about 8% of the land surface of the world in about
100 countries is affected by the twin problems of soil salinity and sodicity. Australia
followed by Asia (42.3 and 21.0 per cent, respectively) had the world’s largest area
under salinity and sodicity. Most of the salt affected soils and brackish ground water
resources are confined to arid and semi-arid regions and are causative factors for
triggering the process of desertification. Recent estimates indicate that 6.74 million ha
in India are affected by higher concentration of salts in the root zone soil. A brief
account of the extent, nature and distribution of salt-affected soils and poor quality
ground water resources in different states in the country is reported in this paper. A
sizeable part of the salty lands in India is constituted by the village community lands
and as such these areas are not suitable for cultivation of annual grain crops because of
lack of individual property rights. Utilization of such lands abandoned due to high
salinity/sodicity for growing salt tolerant trees, grasses, bushes and other high value
industrial crops seems promising option. The Central Soil Salinity Research Institute,
Karnal has developed and standardized several options to produce biomass and
biomaterials to generate energy/electricity from such lands. A brief review of the
biosaline agricultural research in India is cited in this paper. The information has been
discussed under the sub-heads : (i) promising salt tolerant trees, grasses, shrubs,
halophytes and medicinal/aromatic crops, (ii) agrotechniques for practising biosaline
agriculture, (iii) silvipastural and agroforestry models for forage, fuel and energy
production, (iv) soil amelioration by biosaline agriculture practices (v) scope and
limitations of Jatropha and Pongamia as biodiesel crops, (vi) case studies of energy
plantations including post harvest handling, value addition and marketing, (vii) biomass
quality in relation to salinity and sodicity, (viii) socio-economic and environmental
impacts of raising energy plantations in salt lands and (ix) future research, development
and policy needs. Recent results from a seven country consortium biosaline agriculture
programme funded by European Union and Coordinated by Organization for
Agriculture in Saline Environments (OASE), Netherlands will also be shared and
discussed for dissemination and upscaling.
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