Environmental, agricultural, and socioeconomic impacts of salinization to family-based irrigated agriculture in the Brazilian semiarid region

Abstract

Soil salinity is one of the major abiotic factors causing a serious threat to global food security, mainly in arid and semiarid regions. Salinity brings socioeconomic impacts associated with low crop productivity and devaluation of agricultural lands. In this chapter, we approach agricultural, environmental, and socioeconomic impacts of soil salinization. We also report two case studies from irrigated areas of the Brazilian semiarid, where previously cultivated lands were abandoned due to increased soil salinity. A survey of the published literature showed that soil salinity became a global problem that is accelerated by human activities such as deforestation and lack of irrigation management. We conclude that socioeconomic impacts of soil salinity in agricultural lands translate directly as either loss or reduction of crop yield, profit margins, unemployment, and/or reduction of land commercial value in the long run due to soil infertility. Only governmental and private institutions have the financial capability to intervene and help small farmers to counteract this bleak scenario, including water and soil management improvement, to alter the future and improve quality of life of small farmers in the Brazilian semiarid region.