While agriculture is regarded, for good reason, as the backbone of Pakistan’s economy, the sector has been managed, by and large, in a traditional and unimaginative manner.

There admittedly have been some forceful initiatives but they have proved flashes in the pan because the government has not followed them with any degree of concentration or consistency. The result is opportunities going waste and possibilities remaining unexploited.

One of the areas to be subjected to short term approaches has been land affected by water logging and salinity. Various efforts have been made over the years for their reclamation but they have all proved expensive and futile, at best short term solutions. The end-result has been retrieving some fields at the expense of some other land.

The SCARP effort is a case in point. It was undertaken in early sixties with great fan fare and seemed to have done wonders but the outcome was losing fertile lands to drained affluent after reclaiming affected fields. Similarly, the flushing of saline affluent in to ponds ultimately caused seepage in to fields that were producing good crops. It has been a case of fertility exchanged for barrenness.

The National Drainage Programme (NDP) has undertaken in an orderly and organized manner to ensure that the affluent flows in to the sea. Hopefully, the programme would produce desired results but salt affected lands would remain in some parts of the country and they would need to be productively harnessed instead of being abandoned to nature or to plans abandoned mid way. In any case, the NDP is a long-term undertaking and does not in any way bar quicker and productive resolution of problems.

Sporadic attempts have been made to use these lands but the kind of consistent approach essential for making them productive has not been in evidence. Salicornia cultivation was initiated some years back but it wasn’t pursued to a logical length of time, neither was it backed by the infrastructure facilities required to benefit from its produce and use its seed for edible oil. However, if the cultivation had continued, other factors may have been put in place by the force of salicornia’s potential. All in all, salt affected lands have either remained neglected or they have been inconsistently explored. Their potential remains almost totally ignored.

Pakistan has a total of about 5.7 million hectares affected by salinity to varying degrees. It can be reclaimed and hopefully the NDP would produce a complete and durable drainage system to remove excess salt and water from the soil surface. However, there is no reason to treat saline lands as dead loss till that happens. Research has identified a large number of plants for growing in saline lands for use as animal fodder, having energy generating capacity and possessing other useful physical properties.

Two biosaline research stations established near Lahore (BRS-L) and Faisalabad (BRS-F) by the Nuclear Institute for Agriculture & Biology (NIAB) appear to have done extensive research on plants and grasses suitable for cultivation on salt affected soils. Experts have studied both laboratory and field level performance of identified plants and investigated various aspects of economic utilization of saline soil and saline ground water. Results, says Dr. Kausar Malik, Member Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission for Biosciences, “have been encouraging”.

According to Dr. Malik “biomass produced from saline lands by growing salt tolerant plants, particularly kallar grass could be utilized directly as fodder for animals, fuel, green manure or it could be converted in to useful products like compost fertilizer, paper/board, biogas, fuel alcohol and some other products”. These possibilities have been demonstrated on experimental scale and tested in the field, he says.

Studies conducted at BRS-L have demonstrated that soil quality improves by growing kallar grass on saline soil and irrigating it with brackish water for a period of one year. It was also established that following improvement in soil conditions due to this process, “certain cultivars of wheat and barley could also be cultivated on such soils”.

The two research stations of NIAB have also studied a number of plant species and varieties for their relative salt tolerance. Seeds of such plants were obtained by NIAB through exploration and collaboration with national and international institutions. Each species was grown over a range of salinity levels and its growth performance in saline conditions was compared with normal nutrient conditions. The results of these investigations and exercise have been rewarding.

This adds up to a positive state and informs that while plans and projects for reclaiming affected ands and disposal of affluent must be continued so that more land can be brought under cultivation, water logging and salinity do not create a hopeless situation. Agriculture activity can be undertaken on salt affected soils too.

This is important from the viewpoint of shrinking water resources and increasing food needs of the country. Pakistan experienced drought conditions during the preceding three years. They brought widespread misery to the people as well as their livestock. The livestock sector stands to be a major beneficiary if salt affected soils are extensively harnessed for cultivating animal fodder. This is not merely a sector that supplements the income of farmers and provides much needed milk and meat to the people but also an area that provides raw material for exports.

The government has so far backed research half-heartedly at best. There seems no long-term, properly conceived and fully finalized plan for utilizing salt affected lands.

Time the large area abandoned due to excess salt or brackish water was given proper attention and its potential was exploited, more so as it would not place any pressure on existing water resources and strengthen the livestock sector, if not the agriculture landscape in its entirety.