Soil Salinity and Food Security in India

India would require around 311 Mt of food grains (cereals and pulses) during 2030 to feed around 1.43 Bn people, and the requirement expectedly would further increase to 350 MT by 2050 when India’s population would be around 1.8 Bn. To achieve food security in the country, the attempts need to focus on both area expansion under agriculture as well as rise in crop productivity. Massive urbanization is putting pressure on agricultural lands, resulting in shrinking of land holdings. The possibility of area expansion under agriculture, therefore, exists in restoring the degraded lands. Nearly 147 Mha of land is subject to soil degradation, including 94 Mha from water erosion, 23 Mha from…