University of Karachi Professor Dr M Ajmal Khan speaking at a seminar on "Cash Crop Production Using the Saline Water" organised by the University of Sindh Institute of Botany here on Thursday said that the lack of fresh water leads to the creation of salt.
Dr Ajmal added that saline inland basins appearing due to rising level of ground water as a result of leakage of irrigation water.
He said the research conducted to grow plants in saline water areas in different seasons and areas of Sindh was underway including the Gwadar coast and Pasni.
Dr Khan said fresh water resources were not enough to serve the entire needs of people in Pakistan and added that due to faulty irrigation practices soil salinity was increasing rapidly in the prime agricultural lands.
He said a sustained progressive increase in the agricultural production was needed to cope with the increasing population pressure.
Dr Khan mentioned that it was about the time to develop sustainable biological production system, which could use low quality saline water, brackish or seawater for irrigation of halophytic crops in saline lands. Dr Khan said the halophytes could be used as a source of medicine, food, fiber, turf, forage, fodder, wood and timber and added that many halophytes could also be used as animal fodder for raising cattle to meet the demand of meat and other dairy products.
Dr Khan also highlighted the production of some species in the coastal areas through seawater, brackish water for the livestock.
He further said that using seawater and brackish water some species were experimented but only one survived which survived in Gwadar and Pasni coastal areas.
He said that where there freshwater was not available along with saline, some species of the plants according to atmosphere could be developed in different areas of Sindh. He said that with the help of local people, which identified the species, some plantation was done and were grown up in large amounts. Shortage of good quality water and ever increasing soil salinity has created multifaceted problems in Pakistan, particularly in Sindh, he concluded. The Sindh University Vice Chancellor said for past several years they were facing scarcity of freshwater but they were not caring in its use and acting very irresponsibly.
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