Reclamation of Salt Affected Soils in Iraq [antikvár]

PREFACE This work is the fruit of the combined efforts of four authors, who during the period 1953-1959 were employed as foreign experts in the First Technical Section (subsequently in the Fourth Technical Section) of the Ministry of Development and Development Board of Iraq. One of their assignments was to report on the prospects and method of reclamation of salt affected areas. A number of experimental fields were laid out with a view to understanding fully the behaviour of soil, salt and crop under given conditions of irrigation and drainage. The experience gained from these fields was regularly compiled in mimeographed reports which were distributed on a limited scale only. The significance of this research, however, warranted much wider publicity. One of the tasks of the International Institute for Land Reclamation and Improvement at Wageningen being to disseminate the knowledge and experience gained, this body therefore promoted the issue of the subject-matter discussed in the progress reports. The Institute is greatly indebted to the authors, who expressed their willingness to process and rearrange the contents of the progress reports so that they should become attuned to readers outside Iraq. Rewriting the reports does not mean that the results obtained are applicable without further consideration to areas outside Iraq. As long as by reason of the complex nature of the problems and the lack of a quantitative understanding of a few critical factors, a mathematical description of the salt and water movement is beset with difficulties, opportunities of re-using results are limited. The main object of rewriting the reports is to give the reader a clear picture of the interrelationship of salinity, irrigation, drainage and crops under the conditions prevailing in the Mesopotamian Plain of Central Iraq. By stating in full (as far as possible) the conditions and data of influence on the salt and water balance, an attempt has been made to facilitate the drawing of a parallel with the reader's own problems. The first two chapters deal with the background of the experiments and conditions under