VEDARANYAM,
India — On a sun-scorched wasteland near India's southern tip, an
unlikely garden filled with spiky shrubs and spindly greens is growing,
seemingly against all odds.
The
plants are living on saltwater, coping with drought and possibly
offering viable farming alternatives for a future in which rising seas
have inundated countless coastal farmlands.
Sea rise, one of the consequences of climate change,
now threatens millions of poor subsistence farmers across Asia. As
ocean water swamps low-lying plots, experts say many could be forced to
flee inland.
"It's
hard to imagine how farmers will live," said Tapas Paul, who as a World
Bank official helped channel about $100,000 to help build the small
garden a decade ago in a swampy, seaside town dominated by salt flats in
southern Tamil Nadu state. "In the places subject to inundation and sea
level rise, there are few options."
A
team of Indian scientists is searching for solutions to what they
describe as a fast-approaching agricultural crisis. Their neatly plotted
rows of naturally salt-tolerant plants, known as halophytes, could be a
part of the answer. The scientists from the M.S. Swaminathan Research
Foundation are also trying other approaches: tweaking genes and
cross-breeding plants by conventional means to discover which might grow
and even flourish.
"Sea
level rise is inevitable, and we are not prepared," said Swaminathan,
who pioneered high-yield wheat and rice varieties for India in the
1960s. "The biggest problem in India is just the very large population.
We can say people can relocate, but where could we even accommodate all
those who need to move inland?"
___
Saltwater
for a farmer long meant certain crop failure. Wartime foes sowed enemy
fields with salt to ensure social collapse. Natural disasters such as
the 2004 Asian tsunami left countless plots unproductive for years.
Asia's
coastal farmers, including millions impoverished in India, now face
such problems. Climate change will bring stronger storms and warmer
temperatures that expand ocean waters and melt ice caps and glaciers. As
a result, seas are set to rise up to 1 meter (3.2 feet) in this
century, according to the latest scientific forecasts.
Chellammal,
a graceful, 65-year-old farming housewife in the Tamil Nadu village of
Tetakudi, knows the nightmare of farming on salt-contaminated land too
well.
"I
struggled so long to get things to grow, but nothing worked," said
Chellammal, who goes by one name. "Every year just got worse until there
was nothing left," she said, crouched in a bright pink sari by her
fields.
The
land her family had saved for decades to buy went completely barren
about five years ago, after a neighboring village took up shrimp farming
when flooding from a nearby ocean canal salted their lands. The shrimp
ponds were never lined properly, so their saltwater seeped into
surrounding soils.
The
farmland lost by Tetakudi's 200 households now supports little more
than a vast expanse of salt-tolerant shrubs called Suaeda maritime along
with succulents called Salicornia brachiata, known to locals as
"chicken feet."
To the villagers, the bright green bushes are no better than weeds. Already, 12 families have boarded up their homes and left.
But
scientists say suaeda is good for firewood. And salicornia species,
which can tolerate nearly twice the salinity of seawater, have enormous
potential as a biofuel crop, with seeds containing high concentrations
of oil.
The
problem, however, lies in realizing profits. For any crop to work on a
large scale, inexpensive methods and machinery for harvesting will have
to be developed. Then processing plants, production lines and markets
would need to be built. As of now, none of that exists.
Chellammal is dubious, but interested.
"If we can make money from what we grow, we'll try it. Why not?" she said. "Maybe all is not lost."
___
The
timing for an agricultural crisis due to sea rise couldn't be worse.
India's poor farmers already struggle with frequent flooding, drought
and soils degraded by agrochemical overuse. Those on the coast are also
hit by storms, with at least 27 of the 35 deadliest cyclones in history
barreling through the Bay of Bengal before slamming into either India or
Bangladesh.
India's
freshwater sources are also in peril, with over-tapped groundwater
reserves so low the country is expected to have only half the water it
needs by 2030. Grain production, meanwhile, has stalled around 260
million tons in recent years, despite global pressure for India to boost
yields, eliminate waste and eradicate widespread poverty and
malnutrition.
To
feed its growing 1.26 billion population, India must increase food
production 45 percent by 2050, for which experts say it may need to
cultivate more land. Instead, about 1.2 million hectares (3 million
acres) of its coastal farmland has been degraded by salt, according to
India's Central Soil Salinity Research Institute.
Inland,
India has lost another 5.5 million hectares of arable farmland, out of
its nationwide total of 163 million hectares, though India's soil
salinity troubles are exacerbated by industrial salt flats, a growing
number of shrimp farms and the depletion of groundwater reserves. The
trend will only continue as seawater creeps onto low-lying lands along
the 7,500-kilometer (4,700-mile) coast that outlines the country along
the Bay of Bengal, Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea.
"Saltwater
agriculture is considered a futuristic area. But it really shouldn't
be," said marine biologist V. Selvam, the M.S. Swaminathan foundation's
mustachioed director of coastal research. "Very soon there won't be
enough land and water to meet our needs."
And
India is not alone. Countries including Egypt, Bangladesh and much of
Southeast Asia also face heavy saltwater intrusion and loss of farmland.
Already, 62 million hectares, or 20 percent, of the world's total 300
million hectares of irrigated farmland has been salinized to some
extent. Another 50 centimeters (1.6 feet) of sea rise, which is just
half of what's expected by 2100, would swamp up to 1.9 million more
hectares, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said.
That
will undermine the world's ability to find the additional 120 million
hectares of farmland it needs for a staggering 70 percent increase in
food production to feed the world by 2050, according to the U.N. Food
and Agricultural Organization.
Experts say there will be little choice but to grow some non-food crops along the coasts.
The
world's irrigated acreage could be increased by about 50 percent by
reusing saline water and salinized crop fields for halophytes, said
University of Arizona environmental sciences professor Edward Glenn.
"As with aquaculture replacing wild fisheries, it is inevitable that halophytes will have their day," he said.
___
Sesuvium portulacastrum. Paspalum vaginatum. Prosopis juliflora.
These
are just a few of the 350 known species of salt-tolerant plants that
are candidates to become crops for the future. Saltwater plants are
unlikely to become staple foods, because while often high in nutrients
they're also very salty and so should be eaten in moderation.
Species
such as Salicornia europaea, also known as glasswort or samphire, are
already sold in European markets as a fancy salad addition or side dish.
The bright purple-and-white blossoms of Limonium are a florist's
delight, while another species called Atriplex or saltbush is eaten by
sheep.
Supporters
note a host of potential uses to make harvests profitable, including
firewood, decorative flowers, kitty litter, nutritional supplements,
cooking oil and biofuel. Cattle fodder is another possibility, and
Indian herders already graze their cattle on thorny shrubbery by the
sea.
Despite
the potential, saltwater agriculture is still seen as a fringe topic,
even after decades of research by universities worldwide along with
studies and pilot projects in countries including Mexico, Pakistan,
Jordan and Eritrea. The aviation company Boeing is also researching
biofuels from saltwater plants.
India's
scientists aren't waiting for markets to develop. Nor are they relying
on just the halophyte garden to offer up new options.
They're
scouring coasts for wild grain species that might naturally tolerate
some salinity, and using arduous breeding methods to create new
salt-tolerant strains.
The
foundation has also developed genetically modified rice using genes
from mangrove trees. It says the resulting plant can tolerate salt
concentrations of 12-15 grams per liter. Seawater is typically two to
three times saltier, but that's still a major improvement from currently
cultivated rice varieties, which can handle only up to 3 grams per
liter.
Genetic
modification is considered the most difficult approach, because salt
tolerance is a trait that involves numerous genes. But the molecular
biologist leading the development of GM halophytic rice believes it's
essential.
"Conventional
breeding just takes too long, and this problem is urgent," said Ajay
Parida, the foundation's executive director. His work stalled in 2007
under an effective moratorium on field testing GMOs, but the Indian
government is considering shifting its GM testing policy and Parida now
expects his trials to start soon.
"We
could eventually be cultivating wastelands and places considered
entirely unsuitable," he said. "But it's only after crisis hits that
people realize the magnitude of the problem and start pushing for an
answer."
end quote from:
New York Times -
___
No comments:
Post a Comment