Challenges

No crops without water
Even when using unconventional resources, salt tolerant crops and halophytes cannot grow without water. They may be able to survive in extreme circumstances, however without a certain volume of water they will not be sufficiently productive to be interesting as an agricultural crop.

Brackish water
Although a number of species can produce economic value on seawater, more crops and species are available with potentially interesting growth on brackish water. 98% of the available water world wide is seawater. However, the available amount of brackish water is estimated as large as the available freshwater volumes: each more or less 1%.

Challenging technology
Working with salinity demands more technical know how from the farmer, however this can be trained and learned. More complicated is the social organisation that is necessary for salinity management in saline environments, comparable in some ways to Dutch polder-systems. Salinity management often also means costs: investments in infrastructure and maintenance energy costs for drainage and irrigation. Solutions can be found in advanced technologies and cooperative social structures.

Products and markets underdeveloped
Our freshwater crops have been developed through centuries of selection and breeding. The interest in salt tolerant species for agricultural purposes was marginal until recently. The same way of reasoning is valid for products and markets.