Saline soils worldwide: Identifying the most promising areas for saline agriculture

Salinization poses a major challenge for modern agriculture with considerable areas being salt-affected worldwide. However, these lands can be cultivated by applying saline agriculture, involving soil, water and salt tolerant crop management methods. The agricultural use of saline soils helps in addressing food security in times of population growth and climate change. Therefore, there is a need to map saline soils and examine conditions under which saline agriculture can be implemented. The aim of this study is to identify locations and surface area of saline soils. The potential areas for saline agricultural production are mapped using the QGIS software with a focus on the most promising lands for saline agriculture. To identify these most promising areas, we apply criteria of soil salinity, soil fertility, soil pH, water availability, presence of irrigation equipment, as well as depleted water basins. Our results show that the total area of salt-affected soils equals 17 million km(2), but the largest potential for saline agriculture lays in saline soils above 4 dS/m ECe in non-depleted water basins totalling to 2 million km(2). We conclude that further socio-economic analysis is needed to fully determine countries which should be prioritized in exploring the future potential for sustainable food production.