AFTER having reclaimed his small piece of salt-affected agriculture land, elderly farmer Murad Ali Shar is quite excited about cultivating the wheat crop.

Until now, he has not been able to cultivate wheat because of waterlogging and salinity. However, Eucalyptus tree provided by NGO Research and Development Foundation (RDF) came to his rescue and he succeeded in reclaiming his land, located in Sanghar district’s Khipro taluka.

“I was unaware of this species of tree that helps reclaim farmland,” he says, adding that he planted 800 trees on 2.5 acres and it helped improve 12 acres. Later, he grew another 2,000 trees in 2018.

Salinity and waterlogging adversely affect soil fertility. Ultimately, growers have to leave such lands unattended, losing major crops. Salinity is noticeable in many parts of Sindh, especially in the coastal strip owing to fast and unending sea intrusion in the absence of freshwater flows downstream Kotri barrage. Freshwater flows help repulse sea in Sindh’s deltaic region.

Most parts of Sindh have brackish groundwater reserves. These are used for watering fields by farmers due to interprovincial water issues and mismanagement within Sindh. For sweet water flows, farmers depend on water supplied through 14 major canals of three barrages in the province.

Multiple issues lead to salinity in Sindh, including parent soil material, low rains, the rising underground water table, the absence of an efficient drainage system and increasing temperatures

In another intervention, the RDF supported the plantation of acacia tree (called hurri plantation in local parlance) to help farmers reclaim salt-affected land in the same area. Farmer Qaim Deen Leghari says he has successfully reclaimed 12 acres of salt-affected soil by planting acacia tree. “Ever since I grew acacia tree on my land, I found signs of salinity disappearing. The tree has also benefited the adjacent area of around 20 acres where I have now grown mustard seed,” he says.

Mr Leghari’s land in Sanghar was hit by waterlogging and salinity after torrential rains of 2011 which led to flooding. Since the Left Bank Outfall Drain didn’t perform in the area for various reasons, it made his land unproductive.

The RDF is implementing a Climate Resilient Livelihood Program in Sanghar district’s Khipro taluka with the help of German NGO Kindernothilfe (KNH) and German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Hurri plantation is all about block plantation method of Acacia nilotica, an indigenous species. Plantation is an old agro-forestry practice to combat land degradation and reclaim soil fertility in Sindh. Being one of the oldest species, acacia is widely grown in Sindh’s riverine belt — or katcha area — and is primarily meant for forests.

Sindh’s cabinet has recently approved a new forest policy after having done away with the previous one, which allowed the use of forestland for agriculture purposes along with forests.

Updated statistics are not available regarding the actual number of acreages hit by waterlogging and salinity. Quoting figures from 1998, Dr Inayat Rajpar, chairman of the Department of Soil Sciences at the Sindh Agriculture University (SAU) of Tandojam, says that 41pc of Sindh’s agriculture land is salt affected.

“Of Pakistan’s 6.3m hectares of salt-affected land, 2.1m hectares are located in Sindh,” he says, adding that the SAU promotes bio-saline agriculture among farmers because it is the best way to combat salinity and waterlogging.

Experts say multiple issues lead to salinity in Sindh, including parent soil material, low rains, rising underground water table, the absence of an efficient drainage system and increasing temperatures.

Dr Rajpar says the SAU strongly recommends the cultivation of species of plants and crops that are salt tolerant in such pieces of land instead of wasting time on reclaiming it. One of his PhD students has screened 28 different varieties of guar having salt content for cultivation in Tharparkar.

“Our farmers should opt for fodder cultivation or crops like barley which are salt tolerant. With this approach, we can overcome our economic losses running into millions,” he says. Eucalyptus tree helps control waterlogging if the level of underground is below 10 feet from the surface coupled with the usage of freshwater to flush out salts.

Sindh’s agriculture department is executing two separate schemes for reclaiming salt-affected soil in several districts of Sindh. Initially, a scheme to reclaim saline soil was launched in 2016-17 in Jacobabad, Shikarpur, Kashmore, Khairpur, Mirpurkhas, Thatta, Badin, Ghotki and Larkana districts where land was reclaimed through the use of gypsum, sulphuric acid and ammonium sulphate on growers’ applications.

Out of the targeted 12,000 acres, around 9,600 acres were reclaimed. The land is now cultivable, according to Nabi Bux Jamro, an agriculture chemist at the Quaid-i-Avam Agriculture Research Institute.

Another such scheme was launched in 2017-18 and is still being executed in districts of Qambar Shahdadkot, Sukkur, Benazirabad, Dadu, Tando Mohammad Khan, Tando Allahyar, Thatta and Sujawal, focusing 7,620 acres. Under this scheme, 840 acres of land has been improved, 2,340 acres are under improvement and another 3,360 acres would be reclaimed if the funding continues.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, December 16th, 2019