Socio-Economic Studies
of Salt Effected Areas in Golestan Province of Iran

J. Rastegari ¹, F. Khorsandi ², M. Farhangi-Sabet ¹

¹ Nuclear Research Center for Agriculture & Medicine, Karaj, Iran

phone: +98 -261-4411108
e-mail: jrastegari@yahoo.com

² Darab Azad University, Darab, Iran

Abstract

A socio-economic study was conducted on 3000 hectares of heavily salt affected soils of Turkman city of Iran. Evaluation of the project site from different aspects revealed several socio-economical and environmental problems. The main problems are severe soil salinity and alkalinity, severe water salinity, severe water logging and poor drainage, high water table, and high wind and water erosions. However, there is some natural vegetation, dominated by halophytic species that is used for grazing sheep and goats during some part of the year. To a lesser degree, locals use some of the woody type species as fuel. The only source of available water for the project site is Alagol River which is saline water. The population of the District is young. Therefore, for many years to come there will be a need for creating job opportunities. Introducing new source of income to poor farmers can increase their income. This task can be done by introducing new salt tolerant species and biosaline techniques.

Keywords: Biosaline, Halophyte, Turkman city, Semi-arid