Soil Salinity

Human interaction with any environmental resource stirs red signals more than often nowadays. Be it land, water, minerals, the natural resources are misused or extensively exploited. Such is also the case of soil salinity. Soil is being degraded or exploited exhaustively without maintaining its organic structure. Land is a traditional production input, an abundant resource in the vast stretches of India. The combined effect of land area and land quality have important impact on the economic scarcity of the country. Soil salinity of fertile land regions of India emerges as a concerning issue.

 The acute problem of soil salinity is also triggered by irrigation. Irrigation emerges as a boon and a bane at the same time. Irrigation has unfavourable environmental impacts on soil quality. The loss due to salination is unimaginable. The micro-organisms that help in the growth of crops lessen due to improper chemical fertilizers and unscientific application of irrigation water. The inorganic components in the soil dismantle the organic ones, disbalancing the nature of the soil. It is easy to conclude from here that human interaction with soil disrupts the earths natural state. 

The case of sugarcane cultivation belt of Maharashtra, India, is also a case of salination through man-made vis-a-vis natural discourse. Normally, the farmers are blames for the mismanagement of water resources and mis-priorities of cultivation of sugarcane in Maharashtra. The salinity and alkalinity of the sugarcane belt forces the state and institutions to take immediate action in order to ameliorate the issue. There are a vast number of actions to be taken to prevent soil salinity. 

Different saline soils require different types of treatment. Saline soil observed in arid regions need salt leaching, helping to make root zone free from salt and restore an optimum level of solute concentration. Soil porosity influences leaching requirements based on texture, structure and clay mineralogy. Implementing and designing of different drainage treatments, run-off characteristics, rainfall information, etc. is required.

Desalination of soil should be more of a collective effort than an individual one. Constructing watersheds, taking necessary technical help framer training programmes, water management techniques and micro-irrigation techniques can be taken up to protect soil. A collective effort of communities across the country can go long way to desalinate the soil.