Sustainable strategies for irrigation in salt-prone Mediterranean: SALTMED

This paper presents an overview of SALTMED, a project whose goal was to increase productivity and sustainability of irrigated cropping of tomato on salt-prone land. The tomato variety Floradade, identified as having good salt tolerance, was grown in Egypt and Syria over 3 years with either drip or furrow irrigation using either blended saline and fresh water or the cyclical application of fresh and then saline water. In Egypt, fruit yield and fruit number were highest with the combination of drip irrigation and blended water. In Syria, tomato yield under drip irrigation was also higher than that under furrow irrigation and tomato yield decreased with increasing salinity of the irrigation water. SALTMED, a mathematical model that incorporated evapotranspiration, plant water uptake and solute transport, crop yield and biomass production was developed. There was good agreement between simulated and observed yield in Syria and Egypt over 3 years, confirming the value of SALTMED as a tool for use by experts in the management of salt-prone irrigation systems.