Building a community

Research underway along the North Sea countries and elsewhere in the world illustrates the vast and so far underrated potential of growing food on soils generally qualified as saline. Food production on present and future saline soils deserves the world’s attention in particular because 1) food security is a pressing issue, 2) millions of hectares of degraded soils are available world-wide, 3) fresh water is becoming increasingly scarce, and 4) global sea level rise threatens food production in fertile coastal lowlands.

Capitalizing on the vast potential of saline agriculture requires a major interdisciplinary and collaborative research effort to inform effective and supportive policy frameworks and to evaluate the most promising methods for developing saline agriculture in different regions of the globe. The conference intends to build on the conclusions of earlier conferences, such as FAO’s Global Forum on Salinization and Climate Change, Salinity Forum and ICBA’s International Workshop on Climate Change and Soil Salinity Dynamics.

Themes

Presentations, papers and posters will be invited on the following themes:

• Saline agriculture as a way to adapt to climate change and sea level rise
• Fresh water management in potentially saline soils
• Revitalization of saline degraded lands
• Economics and financing of saline farming and products
• Microbiology of soils and plants
• Innovation and practical experience at farm level
• Experiments and promising crops
• Regional policies, politics and governance on salinization
• Awareness raising and capacity building for saline farming