Climate Change Is Making Soils Saltier,

Forcing Many Farmers To Find New Livelihoods

Several factors that makes soils saltier are enumarated in the following causes.
The so called “vapo-transpiration”, which includes the evaporation of water from
soils, may rise as a result of climate change and rising temperatures. The outcome is
that water evaporates while salt stays in the soil, raising its saltiness.
Likewise, sea levels have risen due to climate change. Coastal low-lying areas are
progressively becoming inundated with saltwater, which contaminates the soil.
Rainfall natural cycle can remove these salts, but climate change is also making
extreme weather events like droughts and heat waves more often and more severe.
And because of this abnormal weather events, most groundwater is used more
frequently for irrigation and drinking, further depleting the water table and allowing
more salt to seep into the soil.
Crops can be destroyed and fields rendered worthless by excessive salt in the soil.
This will lead to less yield of productivity of varied crops as projected by farmers since its
plot base soil now needs treatment to revert back to original state, thus translates to
additional financial resources which will be added to capital fund to cultivate crop fields.
Salinity in the soil impairs plant development and damages the soil. Low agricultural
output brought on by saline lands has an impact on local and national economy and
farmers' well-being.
For agricultural regions in our country to flourish sustainably, for ecosystems to be
preserved, and for irrigation management techniques to be improved, soil salinization
dynamics must be predicted.
The creation of strategies for agricultural productivity and effective soil
management, accurate data from monitoring and evaluating the changes in soil salinity
is currently crucial.
 Our scientists, professionals and expects on soil technology are now challenged to
address this vital issue and make sustainable, applicable and timely solutions and
techniques.
Due to the subsequent salty contamination and, eventually, the permanent loss of
habitable lands and no more significant land to cultivate forces farmers to find
alternative livelihood to sustain life demands.
Records shows that it is now increasingly evident happening in coastal areas of
Bangladesh where farmers were less likely to go overseas in search of employment
when farmland near the shore was turned to aquaculture industry or fish farming as
their lands become inundated.
The money these farmers generated from aquaculture is thought to have increased
by close to 60% over the course of eight years as their soils got saltier. They could nearly
completely make up for lost crop profits by diversifying in this way.
These businesses provide fresh employment prospects that can lessen the need to
look for job oppotunities abroad.
This advantage, though, is probably only temporary because turning agricultural
area into brackish ponds will result to increase salinization of soils.
Therefore, assisting farmers to cope the irreversible effects of climate change, three
possible ways are to be continous done:
First, efforts at adaptation that are proactive will make these
transitions easier and lower the social and financial costs of climate
change.
Second, coastal farms can continue to operate as sea levels rise by
creating salt-tolerant crop types and farming techniques, as well as
funding infrastructural initiatives to prevent saltwater floods.
Lastly, brackish aquaculture needs to be regulated as well to
prevent disputes between rice and shrimp growers.