When ICBA was formed in 1999 by the Government of the United Arab Emirates and the Islamic Development Bank, salinization was a major problem in many countries of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. So ICBA was tasked with finding solutions to effectively manage soil and water salinity and use different types of saline water in agriculture. Since then, ICBA has done a great deal to develop and introduce suitable crops and technologies to improve agriculture in salt-affected and other degraded environments.
