Review on Causes and Management Strategies of Salt Affected Soils in Lowlands of Ethiopia

Soil salinization is one of the major constraints in achieving food security and environmental degradation in Ethiopia.Restoration of salt-affected lands into productive lands and protection of newly developed areas from the spread of salinity is therefore of paramount importance.In high salinity areas where technical solutions to soil rehabilitation are expensive and time consuming and growth of normal field crops is restricted, use of bioremediation methods including planting halophytic forages could bring these soils back into production.Furthermore, soil salinity is one of the primary reasons obstructing and preventing lucrative and sustainable agricultural productivity in many African countries as well as many other regions of the world.Soil degradation, which can be caused by salinity and sodicity, is considered as an environmental problem with severe adverse effects on agricultural productivity, particularly in arid and semiarid region.The main goal of the seminar is to highlight the problems of salt affected soils to agricultural production in Ethiopia's lowlands, as well as management strategies for alleviating soil salinity and increasing crop output.Soil salinity affects over half of Ethiopia's arable land.Strong saline soils cover more than half of the arable land affected by salt affected soils.Researchers discovered two primary reasons that limit saline soil fertility: the presence of phytotoxicity substances and nutrient shortage.Numerous strategic salt affected management plans have been created to address these issues in the country's lowlands.Several studies have been undertaken on soil management, which influences the physiochemical qualities of the soil and crop productivity in various ways.This paper synthesizes the available information on the causes, extent, and effects of salt-affected soils on crop production, reclamation and management approaches for tackling salinity and sodicity problems.The management approaches (e.g., the addition of amendments, plantation of salt-tolerant crops, appropriate irrigation and drainage management, phytoremediation, and bioremediation) have successfully tackled soil salinity and sodicity problems in many parts of the world.These approaches have further improved the socioeconomic conditions of farming communities in salt-affected areas.The paper also discusses the effectiveness of these mitigation strategies under Ethiopian conditions.The policy interventions for reclamation of soil salinity and sodicity that indicates future research attention to restoring agricultural sustainability are also foci of this paper Many findings suggested that gypsum, compost and bio-char improved soil physiochemical parameters such as soil texture, pH, accessible P, micronutrient, organic carbon, exchangeable sodium percentage (ESP) and crop yield and productivity.