Latest news
November 2024
Invitation: 𝗦𝗔𝗟𝗧𝗔 𝗼𝗻 𝗧𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰
We cordially invite you to SALTA on Tour 2024, a series of meetings where we will share up-to-date insights on salinisation and freshwater supply in six coastal provinces. These events will focus on the practical experience of entrepreneurs and discuss innovative, practice-oriented solutions and a concrete action perspective for increasing drought, freshwater scarcity and salinisation. Events are in Dutch.
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𝗨𝗶𝘁𝗻𝗼𝗱𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴: 𝗦𝗔𝗟𝗧𝗔 𝗼𝗻 𝗧𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰
Wij nodigen u van harte uit voor SALTA on Tour 2024, een reeks bijeenkomsten waar we in zes kustprovincies actuele inzichten delen over verzilting en zoetwatervoorziening. Tijdens deze evenementen staat de praktijkervaring van ondernemers centraal en bespreken we innovatieve, praktijkgerichte oplossingen en een concreet handelingsperspectief voor toenemende droogte, zoetwaterschaarste en verzilting.
Waarom deelnemen aan SALTA on Tour?
SALTA brengt bestuurders, beleidsmakers, ondernemers en experts samen om kennis te delen en samen te werken aan duurzame oplossingen. We richten ons op zowel de verzilting van de bodem als het grond- en oppervlaktewater, en bieden u unieke inzichten die direct toepasbaar zijn in uw werk.
Bezoek SALTA on Tour in uw regio
Bekijk het programma en de locaties via de website van SALTA Cluster. De bijeenkomsten vinden plaats in de week van 26 – 28 november in de volgende provincies:
26 november: Friesland en Groningen
27 november: Noord-Holland en Flevoland
28 november: Zuid-Holland en Zeeland
Binnenkort delen we aanvullende informatie over het programma en de locatie. Aanmelden kan via de website. Heeft u in de tussentijd vragen? Neem dan gerust contact met ons op via office@salta-cluster.com.
October 2024
First practical knowledge hour SALTA on soil salinisation.
This webinar will be held on Wednesday 30 October from 7 to 8 pm (in Dutch).
𝗘𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗮𝗸𝘁𝗶𝗷𝗸𝗸𝗲𝗻𝗻𝗶𝘀𝘂𝘂𝗿𝘁𝗷𝗲 𝗦𝗔𝗟𝗧𝗔 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗯𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗺𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘇𝗶𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴
Wist u dat er nauwelijks informatie bekend is over de verzilting van landbouwgrond? Het oppervlaktewater wordt op veel plaatsen gemeten. Op de wereldwijde kaart van verzilte bodems is Nederland een blinde vlek. Is dat terecht of ligt het anders?
Praktijkcoaches van SALTA zijn in Groningen en Friesland gestart met het in beeld brengen van de bodemverzilting: zowel in het natte voorjaar als in de relatief droge periode in de zomer. Wat doet zoute kwel met de verzilting van de bovengrond? En wat is de impact van irrigatie van uien met een EC van 4?
De uitkomsten van het werk is ook voor de andere kustprovincies interessant. Sluit aan bij het eerste Praktijkkennisuurtje van SALTA, ingeleid door Arjen de Vos (wetenschappelijk directeur SALTA) en Tjeerd Hoekstra (Praktijkcoach). Dit webinar houden we woensdag 30 oktober van 19 tot 20 uur.
Aanmelden kan door een bericht te sturen aan office@salta-cluster.com.
September 2024
SALTA - 'Institute for Agriculture in Salinizing Deltas' will meet again on 3 October. During this day, three thematic tables will come together: Soil & Crop, Water and Education & Teaching. Each theme table will offer a separate session that will delve deeper into specific topics within the theme.
Meer weten over verzilting in Nederland? Op 3 oktober komt SALTA - KennisCluster Verzilting weer samen. Welke zoutconcentraties komen in Nederland voor in de bovengrond? Wat is het effect van zout op de bodemstructuur? Hoe zit het met de kosten en baten van de mogelijke oplossingen? Hoe kunnen we zoetwaterbeschikbaarheid en verzilting (beter) verankeren in het onderwijs?
October 2024
There we are! Dutch companies active in the field of agriculture in Senegal are keen to meet you at the Dutch residence in Dakar, Fann.
We will be pleased to welcome you there on Friday, October 25 from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. In parallel, there will be information sessions on "Horticôte Senegal", transitional agriculture, the use of technology in horticulture and how to produce in saline areas.
October 2024
One of the activities of The Salt Doctors is designing and developing open-field hydroponics that can use saline water as a water source. Focussing on smallholder farmers, this system has to be easy to operate, robust and cheap. That can be a challenging combination! One of the good things of using saline water is that it already contains a lot of minerals, which reduces the costs of the fertilizers. The system on the pictures runs completely on solar power, so it can operate off-grid as well. The system serves as a water storage as well, ensuring water availability in the dry season. This allows off- season production, ensuring high market prices. The crops we are currently validating are pak choi, kale, cabbage, cauliflower, spinach beet ( Swiss chard) and even tomato, all grown at a salinity level of 8 dS/m.
Currently we are also validation this system in Egypt and Vietnam, with the support of the Dutch PartnersforWater program. Thanks to our project partners Delphy International, Plug'n'Grow in Egypt and the MekongSaltLab consortium in Vietnam!
September 2024
Just finished a good visit to Senegal. This week was all about installing our three main demonstration locations in Kayar, for our "Onion Farming for the Future" project. Setting up solar powered drip irrigation, a design for proper crop rotation, tailor-made (organic) fertilizer strategies, green-manure crops, mulching, robust crop varieties and specific salinity management are all part of these demo's. With this, we will further train our local partners and invite different stakeholders in order to ensure scaling up these solutions.
There are always challenges when setting up demo's like this, but we were able to develop the solutions day by day!
Thanks to our project partners Delphy International, APMK and ANCAR for the collaboration this week, and to our other project partners Marco Rensma, Ecole nationale supérieure d'agriculture-ENSA-Thiès Sénégal , HZPC , Enza Zaden, Hanse Staalbouw B.V. And great to get the (financial) support of Netherlands Enterprise Agency , Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Senegal, Ben Kubbinga, Hanneke van Hoof
August 2024 Save the Date!
Join us for the Salt Lab Forum in Tra Vinh, Vietnam, on October 24-25, 2024! This two-day event will bring together local and international partners to discuss salinity mitigation and adaptation efforts for a more resilient and sustainable future for the Mekong Delta.
We're excited to showcase the solutions to seawater intrusion piloted by the Salt Lab project in local farmer communities. These include:
🔹 Hydroponics
🔹 Freshwater collection and retention
🔹 Water and wastewater treatment
🔹 Constructed wetlands
🔹 Youth water challenge
🔹 Salinity blended learning program
The event will feature high-level discussions and site visits, bringing together government officials, Dutch partners, private sector companies, and international funders to explore and expand these impactful solutions.
📅 When: October 24-25, 2024
📍 Where: Tra Vinh, Vietnam
Stay tuned for more details!
Contact:
Ms. Bica Tran (ngocbich@tvu.edu.vn)
Ms. Nguyen Mai (wynne@thewateragency.com)
Website: https://thesaltlab.org/
September 2024
Harvesting high quality seed potato, while at the same time the surface water surrounding the fields are highly saline. Salicornia and Sea aster, well known halophytes, grow here as weeds along the edge of the surface water. Salinity levels of this water can be a high as 29 dS/m. Groundwater, only 80 cm deep, has a salinity level of 20 dS/m. But the rootzone remains non-saline, due to subsurface drainage and a surplus amount of rain. However, increasing drought can cause capilary rise of the saline groundwater, so the risk of salinization is never far away. Measuring this proces, improve the understanding of capilary rise, and develop ways to reduce this proces are part of the activities of Salta-cluster !
August 2024
Although the "drought" in the Netherlands is now just continuing for one month, you can already see the signs of water stress in several fields, like this potato field on the island of Texel. The effects can be very patchy, the plants in the back appear to grow normal. More and more farmers are faced with longer dry periods and irrigation is becoming increasingly important. But surface water is (moderately) saline in many places. So the big question is what is worse, taking the drought for granted or irrigate periodically with saline water (EC 3-6 dS/m)? These are some of the questions that Salta-cluster is working on, but would love to hear opinions and experiences on this!
June 2024
SALTA (Institute for Agriculture in Salinizing Deltas) is organising a 'Fresh-Salt' two-day event in the Netherlands. SALTA's network seeks solutions in the field of salinisation and is happy to involve anyone interested.
SALTA (Stichting Kenniscluster voor Verziltingsvraagstukken in Delta's) zoekt oplossingen voor de praktijk van boeren en tuinders, waterbeheerders en andere terreinbeheerders. Ze betrekt graag iedereen die interesse heeft in het thema. Op 26 en 27 juni organiseert SALTA een Zoet-Zout 2-daagse in de provincie Groningen. Een tweedaags evenement gevuld met een zeer aantrekkelijk programma gericht op de praktijk en uitwisseling van ervaringen. Er is veel ruimte voor contact. Tussendoor zullen diverse deelnemers de kans krijgen om ervaringen te delen. Zo tonen Praktijkcoaches van SALTA hoe ze de bodemverzilting in kaart brengen. Ben jij er ook bij?
Klik hier voor meer informatie.
July 2024
Interested in hydroponics for
smallholder farmers? Looking for
ways to use saline water for crop
productions? Then please join our
workshop in Egypt!
Empowering Stakeholders for
Agricultural Transformation!🌱
📢 We invite you to join our interactive
workshop dedicated to advancing
agricultural innovation and technology
adoption. This workshop will present
the findings from our participatory
situation analysis for the Nile Delta
and propose solutions to key
challenges there.
💡 About the Workshop:
The workshop is a part of the Project “Providing smallholder farmers hydroponic methods to combat soil salinity and water scarcity (ProSal-Hydro)” funded by Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) | Partner in Sustainable Development through Partners for Water program and implemented by Delphy International, The Salt Doctors, and Plug'n'Grow. The project aims to showcase a saline low-tech, low-cost hydroponics system (LTLCH) to make optimal use of scarce and stressed water resources for food and water security. This system will be offered to smallholder farmers in the Nile Delta.
Event Details:-
📅 Date: Tuesday, 13 August 2024.
🕘 Time: 9:00 am (Egypt Time).
📍 Location: Sofitel Cairo El Gezirah, 3 El Thawra Council St. Zamalek, Egypt.
September 2024
Nice to spent some time in the salt marsh again today. We as The Salt Doctors started our work by studying saline ecosystems like this, and the halophytes that grow there. Subsequently, we worked on turning some of these plants, like Salicornia, into agricultural crops. Nowadays, we work more with conventional crops under saline conditions, but still apply these agro-ecological solutions in the field all over the world!
April 2024
On the 29 of April, there will be two sessions on saline agriculture during the FAO WASAG meeting. The Salt Doctors will give a presentation in both sessions. Good that FAO and its partners are working on farmers' guidelines on how to deal with salinity. But we should now also focus on practical training and demonstrations in the field to provide the knowledge and tools to the 1.5 billion people who live in salt-affected areas!
March 2024
So nice to be back in Kenya! This time for a training on climate resilient agriculture, including salinity management. Together with Pim van Tongeren of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU Amsterdam) we conducted the training for farmers as well as students and staff of the South Eastern Kenya University (SEKU). We visited several farms, collecting and analysing soil and water samples. In combination with the lectures, the participants designed a climate resilient farm, with the ambition to implement these plans soon! Thank you to all organizers and participants for making this a great week!
The training is part of the Tailor-Made Training (TMT) programme of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands and implemented by Nuffic, with Delphy International as a project partner as well.
November 2023
Arjen de Vos becomes scientific director of the 'Institute for Agriculture in Salinizing Deltas' (SALTA) in the Netherlands.
'A great new challenge for which we will work with various partners on salinisation in the Netherlands. Smarter use of fresh water is part of this, but we are also looking at the further development of 'saline agriculture'. In most cases, salt concentrations are not yet extremely high, so there are plenty of opportunities for salt-tolerant varieties of potato, beet and carrot, for example. Until now, research into the various aspects of salinisation has often been pathcy and sometimes lacked scientific or practiacal underpinning. Our aim is to bring existing knowledge together and ensure that future projects will really contribute to the development of climate-resilient agriculture!'
SALTA has been established and is going live. Salination and freshwater supply along the Dutch coast require a joint approach. Together with 35 leading public and private parties, we set to work. To jointly promote good research, develop education and help practitioners (such as agriculture, horticulture and water managers) take the right steps to tackle the impact of salinisation. The guiding principle is ‘mitigation where possible, adaptation where necessary’. An important national initiative, with international significance. Thanks to Province of Fryslân and the ‘founding partners’ for their support in this first phase.
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.
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, 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!
June 2023
It was nice to visit the demonstration day at Rijk Zwaan to see their crops and (new) varieties. Together with Heleen Bos we have discussed which crops and varieties we can select for our HortiSenegal project, which is supported by Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO). Soon, we will finalize the crop list together with our Senegalese partners, so we can start in the field later this year!
17-02-2023
Nice to be back in Bangladesh and see the progress of the field trials and the project itself. For the "Climate Smart Agriculture for a Resilient Coastal Bangladesh", #RECSA, we have been working together with Patuakhali Science and Technology University (PSTU), Wageningen University & Research, Acacia Water and Saline R&D, Rampal, Bagerhat, LTSL of Lal Teer Seed Limited. These activities resulted in new research into saline agriculture, cooperation between the knowledge institutes, the private sector and farmers as well as the set up of a new climate smart agriculture curriculum at PSTU!
This project is supported by Nuffic Global Development and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands
06-02-2023
For our SALAD - Saline AgricuLture project we visited our Egyptian project partner Kafrelsheikh University to assess various fields that can be used for demonstration and training. Close to the Mediterranean Sea in the #Nile delta, farmers face various challenges with salinity, but they have developed resilient farming systems already. Sharing experiences and setting up new demo's are an important part of the project activities, that also includes partners from Morocco, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Italy. The SALAD project focuses on promoting innovative technology deployment and improving climate resilience through saline agricultural practices.
Thank you Prof. Farouk Elaidy for organizing this visit!
17-11-2022
Working on the practical training in #Mozambique the last few days. In many coastal areas and river systems you can find #salinity in the farmers' fields here. We're helping with the salinity assessments, understanding where the salinity is coming from, develop smart agricultural practices to stop and reduce salinization, introduce robust crop varieties, assist with the set up of the demo's at the farmer field schools and help with the capacity building of the local extension services. It's been an amazing week and we will look for new ways to continue the cooperation.
12-11-2022
As part of the project "Impact of salinity in horticultural systems of Mozambique (SaliHort) we are visiting several irrigated areas in the country. Although the #salinity of the water is often monitored, the actual salinity level in the soil is not well known. With our toolkit we are performing a rapid salinity assessment and assisting with setting up a monitoring plan.
The rest of the week we will focus on practical training in the field, looking forward to that! In this way we can further contribute to our mission: increasing crop yield under saline conditions AND put the solutions into the hands of farmers!
April 2024
On the 29th of April, The Salt Doctors contributed to the FAO event "Towards a High-level Dialogue on the Global Framework on Water Scarcity in Agriculture (WASAG)" in Rome. We have been contributing to the Saline Agriculture workgroup, together with specialists from all over the world. This has resulted in guidelines for farmers, to help them to mitigate and adapt to salinity.
Very good that several events were organized that highlighted the importance of salinity. Let's make sure salinity remains high on the international agenda and that we start working on the implementation at field level as soon as possible.
Thank you all to those who made this event possible!
March 2024
Last week we participated in a new round of "Training of trainers" in Senegal. Together with Rijk Zwaan, Koppert, Holland Greentech, we performed different sessions in the facilities of our local partner Agroseed, under the frame of the project "HortiSenegal".
In addition, Andrès had the chance to visit, together with APMK Thiès, the fields of our other project "Onions farming for the future", where the demo fields will be established. The role of The Salt Doctors in both project is linked to the sustainable use of irrigation and soil management to improve crop production under saline conditions.
Thanks to all the farmers who participated and specially to Netherlands Enterprise Agency for leading these initiatives
December 2023
This week, the training of lead farmers started in Senegal for the HortiSenegal project. Together with Rijk Zwaan, Holland Greentech, Koppert and our local partner Agroseed, we will set up several demo plots in close collaboration with the farmers. The focus for The Salt Doctors is on sustainable soil management under saline conditions ( always the best to spent WorldSoilDay in the field!), salinity monitoring and designing tailor-made solutions for the selected farms. Working together with the farmers to make real impact in the field, that's how we like it!
Thank to Netherlands Enterprise Agency and the Dutch Embassy in Senegal for the support, Ben Kubbinga , Hanneke van Hoof, Viviane Ndamba Djeumen and Heleen Bos for leading this project!
November 2023
Back in Bangladesh last month for a practical training on saline agriculture, as part of the NWP (Netherlands Water Partnership) Water for Food programme. The training course was organized in close collaboration with FAO Bangladesh, the national farmers’ organization SBKS and the Asian Farmers’ Association. Several Bengal partners such as Lal Teer Seed Limited, Cordaid , DAE, BADC, SRDI, and Patuakhali Science and Technology University (PSTU) played a valuable role in the training sessions. Peter Prins of NWP and Tine te Winkel from Acacia Water completed the team.
The participants learned about measuring and monitoring salinity, using those results to set up a cultivation strategy, including the use of salt tolerant crops, and smart water management at field level.
It was a great pleasure to work with the farmer organization, who are truly committed to apply the lessons learned and have a real impact!
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/
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!
May 2023
This week, we have been travelling around Kuwait to explore ways to improve food security and water security, two subjects that are now high on the national agenda. We have been discussing with stakeholders from government, research institutes and the private sector, about their needs and challenges, as well as the market opportunities. The various visits to farms in different parts of the country has further helped to start formulating potential solutions. Plenty of salinity challenges that we as The Salt Doctors can help with, but also many opportunities for companies that are working with smart solutions related to water management, irrigation and crop production!
Thanks to Erik Smidt and Fadi Al-Ahmad of the Dutch Embassy for organizing all this, as well as Laurens Westhoff and Simone Landhuis! Great to team up with my collegue Andrés Parra González for this trip!
07-02-2023
Dr. Bas Bruning of The Salt Doctors will provide a keynote speech at the FAO #WASAG forum in Cabo Verde. We have been working with an international consortium to provide updated guidelines for farmers on how to deal with salinity. These guidelines will be published soon! For those who want to join the forum, please see the details below.
31-01-2023
The Dutch seed potato company HZPC is harvesting their #salinity trial in #Egypt. In total, 51 potato varieties are tested at three salinity levels. New breeding lines from existing salt tolerant varieties show good potential to provide farmers with even better varieties soon! This is of great importance to the millions of farmers who have to deal with salinity, but it also offers new opportunities for breeding companies, among others. Nice to see different stakeholders from the public and the private sector visiting the field day. The Salt Doctors are assisting HZPC with the salinity trial, which is part of the #DeSalt project, which is supported by Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland (RVO). Next steps include validation at farm level and showcasing the market opportunities!
21-01-2023
Early December The Salt Doctors were in the Mekong Delta of #Vietnam for the practical training on #salineagriculture. This project is funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and implemented by a wide consortium from the Netherlands and Vietnam, with NWP (Netherlands Water Partnership) in the lead. We as The Salt Doctors focussed on introducing more robust crop varieties, soil management and low-tech / low-cost open field hydroponics. The training will help farmers to adapt to increasing water scarcity and salinity, in order to increase their resilience to a changing climate and improve their yield and profit at the same time!
07-11-2022
Great to be in South Africa! It took a while, but we are finally able to perform the training for Vhembe TVET College, together with Acacia Water. This project is part of the #orangeknowledge program of Nuffic Global Development, with Maastricht School of Management in the lead. Although we are in the wettest part of South Africa, still we find #salinity here. Salinity assessment and climate smart solutions are part of the training sessions, as well as setting up a demonstration in the field as well. We will showcase robust crop varieties and implement agro-ecology practices, in combination with smart irirgation management, in order to help the farmers become more resilient!
11-10-2022
This Thursday (October 13) we will present some of our work during the FAOScience and Innovation Forum 2022, together with several other stakeholders from the Netherlands and Bangladesh. The side event, "Salinity, a complex global challenge with a need for an integrated approach" with cover several aspects of saline agriculture.
07-09-2022
Earlier this year we were in Morocco for a Saline Farming Assessment Mission, funded by Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO). We visited different locations to understand the local conditions and discuss the challenges and the needs of the stakeholders. Based on the results we are now preparing the approach for implementing scalable solutions in Morocco, regarding the crop cultivation under saline conditions and integrated water management.
08-08-2022
To create opportunities for salt-affected farmland, the first step is to understand the salinity challenges of the location. The Salt Doctors work all over the world on salinity assessments and the mapping of opportunities to increase the crop yield under saline conditions. Please have a look at this video that we made about this part of our work, which also includes some guidelines on soil sampling and analysis!
June 2022
We were in Morocco for salinity assessments, stakeholder meetings and mapping of opportunities for next steps, together with Victor Langenberg of Acacia Water. We travelled to the oasis ecosystems in the east as well as the agricultural areas around Marrakech and Agadir. In all places salinity and water scarcity is a major concern, especially with the current drought.
We see several options for setting up demo's of potential solutions!
April 2022
The harvest may be the best part of any training! We always combine field trials with a training so we can focus on the practical skills that are needed to go from a succesful pilot to scalable solutions. In the south of Iraq, almost all farmers are facing salinity issues.
For this training we introduced 2 potato varieties and worked with organic mulching as one of the treatments. Although the farmers West of Basra are forced to irrigate with a salinity level of 6 dS/m we were still able to obtain a calculated yield of 60 tons per hectare!
Next step is to validate the market opportunities that were identified before and to validate the yields on a larger scale.
06-10-2022
Last week we were in Vietnam to provide a masterclass program on saline agriculture. Always a pleasure to work with such a motivated group and great interactions with the experts from Vietnam as well as from the Netherlands! Besides the knowledge sharing, we are also working on setting up demo's in the field, validating different crops varieties and showcasing low-cost hydroponic systems that may be the solution for crop cultivation during the dry season.
The program is funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), a great development that such an organization also sees the need and opportunities for crop cultivation under saline conditions! Also great work by NWP (Netherlands Water Partnership) for executing the program, in close collaboration with the Vietnamese partners such as Can Tho University, Nông Lâm University, SIWRR, Vietnam Farmers' Union, Digital Agricultural Association. For this first training session we teamed up with Royal Eijkelkamp and in close collaboration with Peter Prins, Ingrid Korving and Cor Verbruggen.
Looking forward to seeining the progress and the next training session!
02-09-2022 (only in Dutch)
De droogte zal niemand ontgaan zijn, niet alleen in Nederland maar in heel Europa. Deze maand worden de eerste oogsten van vele akkers gehaald en zal duidelijk worden hoeveel de gewassen hebben geleden onder de droogte, maar ook onder de verzilting. Een lastig onderscheid, want droogte en verzilting leiden op het eerste gezicht vaak tot eenzelfde soort gewasschade.
In dit artikel gaan Arjen de Vos en Bas Bruning van The Salt Doctors samen met Tine te Winkel en Jouke Velstra van Acacia Water hier dieper op in.
05-07-2022
It was our pleasure to show the Cuban delegation the different ways we can use to prevent, mitigate ánd adapt to increasing salinization. On the island of Texel in the Netherlands there are examples of smart water management like rainwater harvesting of Acacia Water, but also salt tolerant potato and halophytes like Groentehelden Texel are cultivating are part of an integrated solution.
Many of these solutions are also relevant for Cuba and many other countries!
June 2022
As part of our activities of the DeSalt project in Egypt, we have performed an economic analysis of the yield of different potato varieties, cultivated under saline conditions. The DeSalt project focusses on optimizing the cultivation and water management under degraded and saline conditions and is supported by Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) and NL-Masr Agri-food Network. For this project, several Dutch and Egyptian organizations work together to establish new business opportunities and market opportunities for Egyptian farmers, regarding climate smart agriculture. The mentioned The mentioned research has been published in the FAO proceeding of the Global Symposium on Salt-Affected Soils (INSAS). Also good to mention that although there is already a clear market opportunity, this is based on the actual potato prices of that year which were extraordinarily low. When using more common potato market prices in Egypt, the profit increased to 88% instead of the reported 14%.
Mei 2022
"The damage is likely to be so severe that salinization will become a major cause of environmental refugees, as people flee land that will no longer sustain them."
Creating opportunities for salt-affected farmland is the mission of The Salt Doctors and this article shows once again why this is so important!
Read this article at Yale Environment 360