Integrated Soil Salinisation Management Strategies in Agriculture

Abstract

Soil salinisation poses a global threat to agricultural sustainability, affecting about one billion hectares of farmland. This review highlights integrated strategies—combining water management, agronomic practices, and biochemical interventions—to mitigate salinity while improving overall productivity. Precision irrigation methods, such as subsurface drip and microsprinklers, raise water-use efficiency by 25%–40% and reduce surface salt buildup. Agronomic approaches—deep tillage, land levelling, and organic or inorganic amendments—enhance soil structure and increase soil organic carbon by 18%–32%. Biochemical tools, including salt-tolerant germplasm and rhizosphere microorganisms (e.g., plant growth-promoting bacteria and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi), can boost yields by up to 50%. Unlike prior reviews focussing on isolated tactics, this work emphasises interdisciplinary synergies, such as subsurface drip irrigation creating favourable conditions for microbial inoculants and salt-tolerant crops. It also addresses key socioeconomic barriers, including high initial costs and technical expertise gaps, and proposes future research on landscape-scale modelling, circular resource use, and climate-resilient saline agroecosystems.