Salt affected soils area in Pakistan?

Answer 1

In Pakistan, about 6.30 million hectares of land are salt-affected and of which 1.89 hectare is saline, 1.85 million hectare is permeable saline-sodic, 1.02 million hectare is impermeable saline-sodic and 0.028 million hectare is sodic in nature. It is estimated that out of 1.89 million hectares saline patches, 0.45 million hectares present in Punjab, 0.94 million hectares in Sindh and 0.5 million hectares in NWFP. Out of 19.3 mha area available for farming, irrigated agriculture is practised on about 16 mha. The irrigation water is mainly supplied through the worlds largest canal system arranged through dams. Intensive and continuous use of surface irrigation has altered the hydrological balance of the irrigated areas, specially Indus basin. The substantial rise in the water table has caused salinity and water logging in large areas of Sindh, Punjab, NWFP and Balochistan. The magnitude of the problem can be gauged from the fact that the area of productive land was being damaged by salinity at a rate of about 40000 hectares annually.