Agroforestry for the Management of Waterlogged Saline Soils and Poor-Quality Waters PDF
Preview Agroforestry for the Management of Waterlogged Saline Soils and Poor-Quality Waters
Advances in Agroforestry 13 Jagdish Chander Dagar Paramjit Singh Minhas Editors Agroforestry for the Management of Waterlogged Saline Soils and Poor- quality Waters Advances in Agroforestry Volume 13 Series editor P. K. Ramachandran Nair , Gainesville , USA More information about this series at h ttp://www.springer.com/series/6904 Jagdish Chander D agar Paramjit Singh Minhas Editors Agroforestry for the Management of Waterlogged Saline Soils and Poor-quality Waters Editors Jagdish Chander Dagar Paramjit Singh Minhas Central Soil Salinity Research Institute National Institute of Abiotic Stress Karnal , Haryana , India Management Pune , Maharashtra , India ISSN 1875-1199 ISSN 1875-1202 (electronic) Advances in Agroforestry ISBN 978-81-322-2657-4 ISBN 978-81-322-2659-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-81-322-2659-8 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016930308 Springer New Delhi Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London © Springer India 2016 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. T he publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper Springer (India) Pvt. Ltd. is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Foreword About two-fi fths of the total food of the world is produced from 260 million hectares (Mha) of irrigated agriculture covering about 17 % of the cropped area. Though the provision and expansion of irrigation has helped in increas- ing food production and n utritional security, irrigation without adequate drainage is leading to waterlogging and secondary salinization especially in arid and semiarid regions. Nearly 20 % of the irrigated area is facing second- ary salinization and one-third is threatened with waterlogging. The problem is severe in areas underlain with poor-quality groundwater. The intense com- petition from urban and industrial sectors is gradually reducing the share of freshwater for agriculture. Moreover, with low consumptive use, the nonagri- cultural uses are leading to the generation of huge volumes of wastewaters. Since the present sewage irrigation practices in most of the developing coun- tries are not satisfactory, their reuse results in progressive and irreversible accumulation of salts, toxic materials, and heavy metals in soil and ground- water. Health hazards from pathogenic contaminations further multiply the complexities from their reuse. The conventional engineering technologies of subsurface drainage for managing waterlogged s aline soils and sewage treatment plants for treating wastewater are often unaffordable for resource-poor countries. Fast-growing forest tree plantations have shown promise for controlling waterlogged situa- tions across the diverse agroecological regions. The safe and sustainable use of wastewater through high-transpiration rate plantation crop s can also serve as a low-cost alternative. Thus, full and effi cient utilization of this upsurge in scientifi c agroforestry seems both a challenge and an opportunity to the agro- forestry scientifi c community. In order to understand the challenge and to provide sustainable solutions to these daunting problems, agroforestry scien- tists need access to synoptic information on multidimensional aspects of sci- entifi c knowledge of latest techniques. The contributors to this book are experts in their relevant fi elds and have added their experiences to the value of this publication. I sincerely appreciate the contribution of all authors and the editors who have brought this publica- tion to high standard. I hope the publication will be very useful for scientists working in the fi eld of salinity, policymakers, environmentalists, education- ists, and researchers for shaping this very important fi eld of present-day sci- ence. I congratulate all editors, including series editor Dr PKR Nair, for their v vi Foreword splendid accomplishment and express the global agroforestry community’s gratitude to them for adding such valuable information to the agroforestry literature. M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation M. S. Swaminathan Third Cross Street, Taramani Institutional Area Chennai 600 113 , India Pref ace S alt-induced land degradation is a global phenomenon, affl icting millions of hectares within the sovereign borders of at least 75 countries. Besides endan- gering the food security, it has far-reaching and unacceptable socioeconomic consequences since a large proportion of this land is inhabited by smallholder farmers. The anthropogenic environmental changes and the c limate change are further adding to the problem. Thus, dealing with the salinity in reality is becoming a highly onerous task owing to its complex nature, uncertainty, and differential temporal and spatial impacts. Nevertheless, with the need to pro- vide more food, feed, fuel, fodder, and fi ber to the expanding population and nonavailability of new productive land, there is a need for productivity enhancement of these lands. In fact, the salt-affected lands cannot be neglected since huge investments have been made in the development of irrigation and drainage infrastructure. T he social, economic, and environmental costs being high for the on- and off-farm reclamation techniques, agroforestry is now emerging as a potential tool not only for arresting salinity but for other environmental services like mitigating climate change , sequestering carbon, and restoring biodiversity. This publication attempts to address a wide range of issues related to the agroforestry principles involved in the rehabilitation of waterlogged saline soil s and judicious use of marginal quality waters. Many of the site-specifi c case studies and those that are typical to the catchments have been described in detail. Since agroforestry is now considered as an integral part of strategies for the reversal of salinity-related land management soil problems, the con- cepts and practices currently available in different parts of the world for the remunerative use of these lands have been reviewed. The authors of the various chapters come from a wide range of disci- plines—agronomy, a groforestry, ecology, soil science, soil-water engineer- ing, forestry, etc.—and are experts in their fi elds and have added their long-standing fi eld experiences for the “prescriptive” aspects. We sincerely thank all the contributors and reviewers who contributed enormously on a short notice and cooperated so splendidly under strict and diffi cult time schedules. We also acknowledge Dr PKR Nair, Florida University, Gainesville, who is also the series editor, for his constant encouragement and help from time to time to bring out this publication in its present shape. We are also indebted to Dr MS Swaminathan who kindly wrote the wonderful Foreword for this publication. We hope that this publication will be very useful for sci- vii viii Preface entists working in the fi elds of soil salinity, waterlogging, and poor-quality waters; policymakers; environmentalists; students; and educationists for shaping this very important fi eld of present-day science dealing with the live- lihood security of resource-poor stakeholders. Karnal, Haryana, India Jagdish Chander Dagar Pune , Maharashtra , India P aramjit Singh Minhas Contents Introduction ........................................................................................... 1 J. C. Dagar and P. S. Minhas Global Perspectives on Agroforestry for the Management of Salt- affected Soils .............................................................................. 5 J. C. Dagar and P. S. Minhas Use of Tree Plantations in Water-table Drawdown and Combating Soil Salinity ................................................................ 33 P. S. Minhas and J. C. Dagar Prospects for Managing Salinity in Southern Australia Using Trees on Farmland ..................................................... 49 Nico Marcar Models for Estimating Evapotranspiration of Irrigated Eucalypt Plantations ............................................................................. 73 S. Theiveyanathan , R . G. Benyon , V. Koul , R. K. Yadav , and R. I. S. Gill Perspectives for Bio-management of Salt-affected and Waterlogged Soils in Pakistan ...................................................... 97 A. S. Qureshi Combating Waterlogging in IGNP Areas in Thar Desert (India): Case Studies on Biodrainage ...................................... 109 M. M. Roy , N. D. Yadava , M. L. Soni , and J. C. Tewari Agroforestry to Rehabilitate the Indian Coastal Saline Areas .......... 121 J. C. Dagar and P. S. Minhas Saline Irrigation for Productive Agroforestry Systems ..................... 145 J. C. Dagar and P. S. Minhas Potential of Wastewater Disposal Through Tree Plantations ............ 163 R. K. Yadav , P. S. Minhas , Khajanchi-Lal , and J. C. Dagar ix
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