The publication of this Handbook was supported by the Russian Federation

K.N. Toderich (UAE), I. Shoaib (UAE), T.M. Khunshazarov (Japan) and G.M. Khasankhanova (Uzbekistan)
The Aral-Caspian Depression with its sharply continental arid climate faces a serous problem 
in producing enough food for a rapidly growing local population. The situation is exacerbated 
by an increase in degraded land area due to soil salinization and loss of  fertility combined with 
unsuitable land management practices of  growing wheat and cotton. The intensive use of  water 
and land resources, excessive irrigation, overgrazing and felling trees and shrubs for fuel (firewood) 
has resulted in the degradation of  fertile soils into unproductive lands unsuitable for irrigation 
farming, animal fodder production or cattle grazing [11-13, 16, 17]. Annual financial losses due to 
soil salinization are estimated at 31 million USD, while the cost of  land abandonment due to soil 
salinization is more than $12 million a year. Shortages of  irrigation water lead to the necessity to 
use low-quality saline water for irrigation. This, in its turn, has a negative effect on the agricultural 
industry in the sense that the fragile balance of  existing crop cultures can be lost, because most 
traditionally grown crop cultures are sensitive to soil salinization.
Therefore, the development of  alternative systems of  agricultural production is especially important 
for mobilizing existing marginal resources within the region to bring profitability to local farmers 
without any damage to the environment.
The system of  biological amelioration is aimed at the improvement of  land quality, primarily, soil 
fertility and the support of  highly nutritious and high-calorie fodder production on salt-affected 
soils, virtually wastelands, which can be reclaimed for agriculture, while at the same time restoring 
their condition as functioning agricultural ecosystems.
Biosaline  technologies  for  the  reclamation  of   salt-affected  soils  and  restoration  of   productivity 
of  degraded agricultural ecosystems were developed by the International Centre for Biosaline 
Agriculture in Central Asia and Transcaucasia (ICBA CAT) and have been successfully implemented 
in practice in agricultural crop production, fodder production and animal husbandry.