Creating opportunities for salt-affected farmland
We help to improve crop yield under saline conditions
and bring solutions into the hands of farmers
The Salt Doctors specialize in creating and implementing resilient farming systems
for salt-affected areas.
We achieve this by research and consultancy, providing practical training in the field
and assisting with the implementation from sowing to harvesting.
Salinity levels are increasing all over the world. As a result, yields are decreasing and the livelihood of millions of farmers and global food security is under pressure already.
The Salt Doctors often act as an implementation partner to realize climate resilient agriculture and help farmers to adapt to the ever-increasing salinity levels.
We focus on an integrated approach that provides practical guidelines, training
and demonstration in the field on how to deal with salinity and improve the crop yields
in a sustainable way.
Key Focus:
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Salinity assessments and mapping of opportunities
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Research, training (of trainers) and capacity building
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Developing, demonstrating and implementing scalable solutions under saline conditions
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Why Saline Agriculture?
Up to 833 million hectares are salt affected globally and this often leads to reduced crop yields.
Saline agriculture makes use of salt tolerant crops to improve yields under saline conditions.
Helping farmers to adapt to the ever-increasing salinity levels
can have a major impact on the food security and livelihoods of 1.5 billion people!
Our projects
Salinity assessment:
Saline farming assessment mission
in Morocco
Identifying salt affected farms that are suitable for future demonstration activities and identify local partners who are willing to be part of future activities to help Moroccan farmers to become more resilient to increasing salinity levels under (fresh)water scarce conditions.
Read more
Training and capacity building:
Training potato cultivation under saline conditions in Iraq
The Salt Doctors performed a practical training, regarding potato cultivation under saline conditions, for the staff of Basrah University in Iraq.During classroom training sessions different aspects of crop salt tolerance and soil and water management were covered as well.
Read more
Scalable solutions:
Developing scalable solutions
in Egypt
The project focusses on creating business cases for saline agriculture and build capacity for the further implementation of sustainable saline agricultural practices. Creating business cases is important to show farmers that saline agriculture is possible and profitable.
Read more
Latest news
October 2023
With the support of the Saline Water & Food Systems Partnership (SW&SF) of the Netherlands Food Partnership (NFP) and NWP (Netherlands Water Partnership), a three-day workshop took place in Turkana County, Kenya. The workshop resolved around challenges and opportunities of using saline resources in Turkana County, Kenia. It brought together various stakeholders from (local) government, NGOs, United Nations organisations, knowledge institutes, and the private sector.
The workshop was implemented by Seawater Solutions and The The Salt Doctors, in close collaboration with the World Food Programme, FAO, and the Turkana County Government.
Read more about the conference and download the conference report.
July 2023
Nice to see this article on our work in Cuba! Last year, we visited Cuba twice and we are ready to start with the implementation phase that will hopefully start soon!
Thank you Erik Plaisier and Yuhina Mangly López of the Dutch Embassy for supporting us with all the steps and grateful for the collaboration with FAO in Cuba as well as the Ministry of Agriculture!
October 2023
This week we have been in Vietnam for the official launch of the Mekong Salt Lab. The project will implement sustainable and transversal solutions in the Mekong Delta, where salinity is a major issue for thousands of farmers in the region.
For it, The Salt Doctors, The Water Agency, Saxion University of Applied Sciences, SkillEd, Kim Delta Vietnam, HZ University of Applied Sciences and Acacia Water are joining forces with Tra Vinh University to establish different demo locations and training programs on salinity adaptation.
October 2023
Great opportunity to join this network on the sustainable use of salt-affected lands: There is a new COST Action SUSTAIN starting. It's an interdisciplinary research network that brings researchers and innovators together to investigate this topic for 4 years. They will meet to discuss, prepare research proposals, conduct training schools and do short research visits.
To learn more and join visit: https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA22144/
June 2023
Visiting the field on the island of Texel again. Here, Jan Bakker is facilitating a commercial field trial on the selection of salt tolerant potatoes. Nice differences between the salinity treatments and some varieties are looking very promising! Monitoring of salinity levels is done with suction cups so frequent sampling of soil pore water can be done. Also, hashtag#groenteheldentexel are cultivating various halophyte crops for the market as well. Keep up the good work, still one of the best locations for saline agriculture in the Netherlands!