ICBA co-sponsors the 3rd International Salinity Forum

The 3rd International Salinity Forum, held in Riverside-California June 16-18 gathered wide international participation of scientists and managers from several countries concerned with salinity problems. The forum, held after every 2-3 years and was the third in the series, was co-sponsored by ICBA and other international organizations. The forum emphasized a lot of the management issues of salinity and of other types of pollutants and minerals associated with salinity problems. 

The forum touched on topics such as interdisciplinary salinity issues; the interactions between research and development, practice, and policy; soil salinity reclamation; and recycled treated water.

The ICBA team presented several scientific thematic papers both in the plenary and technical sessions. ICBA presented on its experience with economics and management, plant salt tolerance, and social impacts of salinization. Dr. Shoaib Ismail presented a paper on the social and economic impacts of salinization. Dr. Abdullah Dakheel talked about ICBA’s regional experience on the impact of salinity on agricultural productivity. In addition,Dr. Khaled Masmoudi from ICBA presented a paper on the ion transporters and their role in durum wheat salt stress tolerance and Dr. Khalil Ammar presented a paper on the integrated water management approach to control seawater intrusion in coastal agricultural areas.

The last session of the forum discussed the hosting of the next forum. ICBA in collaboration with KAUST was suggested to host the next forum in Dubai by 2017 or 2018. Other nominations included Australia and Spain. The interested countries will submit a tentative plan for finalizing the next forum.