| Dryland salinity is one of the most prominent and intractable problems facing farm managers in the extensive non-irrigated farming systems of southern Australia. The issue was ignored by policy makers until late in the twentieth century, but is now the sole or partial subject of government programs with budgets totaling several billion Australian dollars. Salt occurs naturally at high levels in the subsoils of most Australian agricultural land. As a result of clearing native vegetation, groundwater tables have risen, mobilising the salt and causing adverse impacts to farmland, infrastructure, water resources, and biodiversity. The main action required to prevent groundwater tables from rising is establishment of perennial plants, either herbaceous... |
