Advanced method to identify crops with salt tolerance

Soil salinity is a major concern affecting a large number of farmers throughout the world. Researches are done to overcome the issue of soil salinity. Dutch scientists (Prof Dr. Gerrit van Straten (Wageningen University), Prof. Dr. Peter van Bodegom (Leiden University), Prof. Dr. Jelte Rozema (VU University Amsterdam), Dr. Arjen de Vos (Salt Farm Texel) and Dr. Bas Bruning (Salt Farm Texel, Salt Farm Foundation) are working to improve methodology that can overcome crop salt tolerance.  

What is Soil Salinity?

Soil Salinity is the amount of salt present in the soil. The process of increasing salt content in soil is called as Salinization. Salinization can be caused due to several reasons like leaching of soil, continuous agriculture and also due to human influence. Soil salinity affects the yield of the crops. With decreasing yield farmers have to move from their field.  The migration due to salinization is an emerging pattern in agriculture.

Salt tolerant plants

Dutch scientists (Prof Dr. Gerrit van Straten (Wageningen University), Prof. Dr. Peter Van Bodegom (Leiden University), Prof. Dr. Jelte Rozema (VU University Amsterdam), Dr. Arjen de Vos (Salt Farm Texel) and Dr. Bas Bruning (Salt Farm Texel, Salt Farm Foundation) experimented on crop salt tolerance level. It varies from crop to crop. The work provides a methodology to determine and evaluate the level of salt tolerance in crops. The results show that potato which is believed to be a salt sensitive is tolerant to a moderate level. The evaluation method can lead to the effective study of salt tolerance level of crops and can ensure food security.