Farmers in areas with salty water and/or soils can maximise their harvest and get twice as much switching from regular crops and picking salt-tolerant crops.
In experiments done by farmers in Isinya with saline/salty soils together with Dutch Company Salt Farm Texel which specialises in helping farmers grow in salty-heavy soils (saline soils) by switching from local vegetables and beans to salt-tolerant cabbage and carrot varieties as well as crops like sorghum, barley, wheat, and maize they were able to increase their yields 100 per cent.
Soil salinity decreases the production of most crop by at least 20–50 per cent. Salt affects a crop’s ability to take in nitrogen and phosphorous and micro-nutrients like Iron, Copper, Zinc,and Boron. Chloride in salt can also poison plants and kill them.
According to the FAO, 24 million hectares of Kenya’s agricultural land is affected by salt.
Farmers in arid and semi-arid areas(ASAL) are the most impacted because up to 40 per cent of their land is salt-affected. Borehole water in most ASAL areas in the coast, Kitui, Turkana, Elementaita, Naivasha, Embakashi, Athi River, Garissa and Isiolo which have serious water scarcity is also highly saline. According to Matolo Nyamai a soil surveyor, salinisation is rising in irrigated ASAL farmland. “Although borehole drilling is a viable solution for increasing irrigation water supply in drier areas, the groundwater in most of these places is highly saline,” he said.
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Farmers with saline soil and irritation water are advised to grow crops like barley, rye, or sugarbeets, which can handlethe salty condition,s and avoid sensitive crops like beans and most vegetables like tomatoes and sunflowers.
To know how salty your soil or water is you will need to order a soil/ water quality test from the Kenya Forestry Research Institute, Crop Nutrition Laboratory Services, SGS Kenya or any other place you can get soil test services.
The amount of salt in soil or water is measured in deciSiemens per meter (dS/m). 0 to 2 dS/m means the salt level is low and has almost no effect on plants. 2 to 4 dS/m means it is slightly salty and salt-sensitive plants may struggle. 4 to 8 dS/m means the soil or water is moderately salty. Here many plants find it hard to grow. 8 to 16 dS/m means the soil or water is very salty and only the toughest crops grow well. Anything above 16 dS/m qualifies as extremely salty and very few crops can survive here.
In experiments done by Utah State University Extension barley was the toughest crop that grows well in salty soil. It grows well in moderately salty soils that many plants struggle to grow and only start producing less once the soil becomes very to extremely salty (13–17 dS/m).
Sorghum is another salt-tolerant crop that produces good yields in moderately salty soil (up to 4 dS/m) but starts producing less as the soil becomes moderately salty or increases beyond 7–10 dS/m.
Sugarbeets are also a great option for farmers with salty soil. They thrive in moderately salty soils with a 6.7 dS/m and remain productive even in highly salty conditions (up to 15 dS/m).
Rye grains grow well even when salt levels are moderately high, up to 5.9 dS/m, but production drops at very high levels like 12–16.5 dS/m.
Triticale is a hardy grain similar to rye that also does well in salty conditions. It is tolerant of salt up to 6.1 dS/m, but production falls sharply at levels above 12–14.2 dS/m.
Another grain, oats do well in mild to moderate salt well but produces less when salt becomes too high.
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Canola is somewhat sensitive but can grow in slightly salty soil up to 2.5 dS/m but struggles as salt levels increase above 6–9.5 dS/m.
Maize is moderately sensitive. It grows okay in mildly salty conditions but starts producing less when salt levels rise above 6–7 dS/m.
Wheat can tolerate mild to moderate salt but struggles and produces less in very salty soil with a dS/m above 8–10.
Amaranth is the only vegetable that grows well in moderately salty soil up to 4.5 dS m-1. When the salt increases past this it delays to flower.
Picture: Salt-stressed wheat in a field (Photo credit: CIMMYT)