Current Status of Research, Technology Response and Policy Needs of Salt-affected Soils in India – A Review

Salt-affected soils (SAS) in India pose serious threat to national economy. Over 6.74 million hectares of lands have been assessed to be salt affected, either saline or sodic in India, out of which 2.1 million hectares have been reclaimed. In the beginning, research on SAS by ICAR-CSSRI, Karnal, India focussed on basic research for understanding the problems of salt and water dynamics and balance, causes of salt accumulation and plants behaviour under such stresses. After decades of experiments, recommendation emerged as technologies for reclamation and management of SAS as, robust gypsum technology for reclamation of sodic soils, developing salt tolerant crop varieties, guidelines for use of poor quality waters, rehabilitation of salty lands using forestry species, etc. All these efforts contributed towards improving livelihoods conditions and gainful engagements of farming communities in salt-affected areas of the country. Despite having larger potential, often the success stories remained sporadic and limited. Technologies as recommended by researchers needs to be complemented by suitable policies to benefit larger communities. There is a lack of knowledge on what policy measures are needed to encourage farmers to adopt effective technologies for SAS. Key policy impediments needed to address for technology dissemination issue in order to reach targeted communities in salt-affected areas in India for turning research output to large scale practices and higher societal benefits. In this article the policy thrusts have been identified both for technology developers (scientists) such as need of generating real time database on SAS, testing of evolved technologies in larger areas as well as planners for promotion of technology to end-users (farmers) through incentives mechanisms and community engagements for out-scaling of proven technologies.