Saline Agriculture (Interactive Course)

This interactive course introduces you to the topic of saline agriculture and the growing importance of managing salinity in soils, water, and farming systems. Through a combination of short videos, reading materials, interactive activities, quizzes, and real-world case studies, you will explore how salinity affects agriculture, ecosystems, and livelihoods across the world.

The course takes a global and multidisciplinary approach, drawing on ecological, hydroclimatic, social, and economic perspectives. You will begin by understanding the causes and impacts of salinisation, then explore practical strategies for adaptation and mitigation. Finally, you will look at how saline agriculture can be integrated into broader farming systems and applied in different regional contexts.

This course is a transformed, interactive version of the original Saline Agriculture course. The content has been redesigned to create a more engaging learning experience through multimedia learning materials, interactive activities, exercises, and guided reflection, while still staying grounded in the original course materials and examples.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Understand the causes and effects of salinisation on ecological, social, and economic levels
• Explain how salinity varies across different regions and climatic conditions
• Distinguish between salinity mitigation and salinity adaptation
• Identify practical field-level solutions for managing saline conditions
• Understand how saline agriculture can be integrated into mixed farming systems
• Explore successful examples of saline agriculture from around the world

STUDENT REQUIREMENTS

No specific skills and knowledge required. Though some general understanding and interest in food systems and climate change scenarios will help to put things in proper perspective.

COURSE PROVIDERS

This interactive course is based on the original Saline Agriculture course developed by:

Bas Bruning has more than ten years of experience in the field of crop salt tolerance, and the practical implementation of saline agriculture. It is his goal to help farmers worldwide to increase their yields under saline conditions through the means of a social enterprise: the Salt Doctors. Through his extensive international experience, he knows what is needed to get the right knowledge in the hands of those who need it most: the farmers.

Pim van Tongeren is a researcher in the department of Environmental Policy Analysis of the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) at Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam. He works on the SALAD project (Saline Agriculture as a Strategy to Adapt to Climate Change). It addresses the research area of food security under climate change through saline agriculture, aligning vision, research and practice among European and African countries focusing on saline agriculture upscaling.