Economic Utilization of Salt-Affected
Wasteland for Plant Production
A Case Study from Pakistan
M. Yasin Ashraf, A. R. Awan, Sumera Anwar, Binish Khaliq, Arif Malik,
and Munir Ozturk
Contents
1 Introduction .................................................................................. 2
2 Location and Climate of the Biosaline Research Station .................................. 4
3 Soil and Water ............................................................................... 4
4 Natural Vegetation ........................................................................... 5
5 Salt-Tolerant Plants .......................................................................... 5
6 Salt-Tolerant Food Crops ................................................................... 8
7 Use of Halophytes as Forage ............................................................... 14
8 Halophytes Used as Fuel and Charcoal ..................................................... 16
8.1 Biofuel ................................................................................. 17
8.2 Essential Oils .......................................................................... 17
9 Value-Added Products ....................................................................... 18
10 Saline Aquaculture .......................................................................... 18
11 Saline Apiculture ............................................................................ 19
12 Sustainability of the Biosaline Research Station ........................................... 20
References ........................................................................................ 21
M. Yasin Ashraf (*)
Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and Biology (NIAB), Faisalabad, Pakistan
Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (IMBB), The University of Lahore, Lahore,
Pakistan
A. R. Awan
Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and Biology (NIAB), Faisalabad, Pakistan
e-mail: arawan77@yahoo.com
S. Anwar · B. Khaliq · A. Malik
Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (IMBB), The University of Lahore, Lahore,
Pakistan
e-mail: sumera.anwar@imbb.uol.edu.pk; beenish.khaliq@imbb.uol.edu.pk; arif.malik@imbb.uol.
edu.pk
M. Ozturk
Department of Botany, Edge University, Izmir, Turkey
e-mail: munirozturk@gmail.com
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
M.-N. Grigore (ed.), Handbook of Halophytes,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17854-3_87-1
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