ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has lost 29.6 per cent of its agricultural land to soil salinity and sodicity, according to the first major assessment of salt-affected soils in 50 years, released by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations.

Pakistan has an agricultural land area of 22 million hectares, out of a total land area of 79.7m hectares, of which 6.67m hectares are affected by soil salinity and sodicity, the assessment reveals. The report says some salt-tolerant species are not halophytes, such as cotton, sugar beet, barley, and date palm and do not exhibit the same ability. There are almost 1,500 salt-tolerant species globally but one per cent........

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