The Soil Salinity Problem
Salty (saline) soils are soils that have a high salt content. The predominant salt is normally sodium chloride (NaCl, "table salt"). Saline soils are therefore also sodic soils but there may be sodic soils that are not saline, but alkaline.
Salty soils are a common feature and an environmental problem in irrigated lands in arid and semi-arid regions. They have poor or little crop production. The problems are often associated with high water tables, caused by a lack of natural subsurface drainage to the underground. Poor subsurface drainage may be caused by insufficient transport capacity of the aquifer or because water cannot exit the aquifer. For instance, if the aquifer is situated in a topographical depression.
Worldwide, the major factor in the development of saline soils is a lack of precipitation. Most naturally saline soils are found in (semi)arid regions and climates of the globe.
Read more about this topic: Soil Salinity Control
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“The Indian attitude toward the land was expressed by a Crow named Curly: “The soil you see is not ordinary soil—it is the dust of the blood, the flesh, and the bones of our ancestors. You will have to dig down to find Nature’s earth, for the upper portion is Crow, my blood and my dead. I do not want to give it up.””
—For the State of Montana, U.S. public relief program. Montana: A State Guide Book (The WPA Guide to Montana)
“If a problem is insoluble, it is Necessity. Leave it alone.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)