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Report rubs salt in dry land's wounds
6 Jul 2004
The National Dryland Salinity Program said yesterday that about 5.3 million hectares of land - equal to one-quarter of Victoria - may never recover from the effects of salinity. The group said Australia's focus should now be on saving high-value resources such as townships and rivers, but warned there's no "silver bullet" to fix salinity problems.
The National Farmers' Federation says the cost of fixing salinity around Australia is $6 billion a year for 10 years. Research has shown that managing vegetation is the key, but planting more trees is not necessarily the solution. In some cases, farmers might have to learn to live with salt, adjusting their practices - such as planting saltbush. Some salt land pasture systems are proving viable and profitable but they need refining, and farmers need to change their attitudes towards them.
The Program launched three manuals and a CD-ROM kit yesterday which offer practical help with a problem that reduces farmers' profits by $187 million each year.
The Age, 6/7/04.
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