Living Land

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Innovative agricultural intensification

of sandy desert soils using organic

and inorganic amendments

Shabbir A. Shahid, Abdullah Alshankiti, Shagufta Gill and Henda Mahmoudi,

International Center for Biosaline Agriculture, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

arth’s total land mass is about 148,939,063 km

which is about 29.2 per cent of its total surface.

Water covers approximately 70.8 per cent of the

arth’s surface, mostly in the form of oceans and ice

formations. Earth is the only planet known to have an

atmosphere containing free oxygen, oceans of water on its

surface, and life. Thus, if it provides sustainable ecosys-

tem services we can call it a living land. If, however, its

capacity is diminishing due to diversified threats then

we have to think of its sustainable management for long-

term services for human beings, maintaining biodiversity

and environmental services.

‘Land’ is a broad term, which includes diversified features,

mountains, rivers, forests, agricultural farms, buildings and

so on. However, ‘soil’ is narrower in meaning and exclu-

sively means a medium for plant growth. Overexploitation

of soil resources, for quick benefits without appreciating

soil health, has shrunk soil resources to an unprecedented

level and there is growing concern that over years it may not

be able to provide sufficient food to meet human demand.

Therefore it is essential to maintain soil health for long-

term benefits; this is only possible when we manage the soil

through scientific diagnostics and innovative ways includ-

ing diversified organic and inorganic soil amendments.

Trials on soil amendments for forage production at the

International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) have

revealed a general increase, and in some cases a doubling,

of fresh biomass over the control treatment where amend-

ments were not added. Results from greenhouse and field

Land degradation is a serious environmental problem, especially in the drylands that occupy one-third of the Earth’s surface

Image: ICBA

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