Junagadh: Experts have raised concern rampant exploitation of groundwater for irration and irrational incentives for power supply in many states that is increasing inland salinity."90 percent of salinity problems are man-made across the world and we must find out solutions by judicious use of ground water in preventing coastal salinity as well as inland salinity. Punjab, the green bowl of South Asia, was once a barren land and people were nomadic in these regions. But after East India company focused on irrigation and progressive farmers settled here, it was converted into a a totally different zone. However, this area is facing salinity problems due to over exploitation of surface as well as ground water,'' said Tushar Shah, senior fellow at International Water Management Institute (IWMI).Shah was addressing a national workshop on 'Coastal Salinity Management Strategies' at Junagadh Agricultural University (JAU). The workshop was jointly organized by 'Coastal Salinity Prevention Cell' (CSPC)-Ahmedabad, Agakhan Rural Support Programme (India), Salinity Ingress Prevention Circle (Rajkot) and Water Management Forum."Excessive use of chemical fertilizers is also causing a major problem in many parts of the country. Many states provide power subsidy and sometimes free power actually destroys agrarian communities and agriculture in the long term. Do not give unlimited power to farmers it would be disastrous but provide such incentives which help generate income to farmers like solar plants from which they can sell power to government and generate income,'' he said."Coastal salinity occurs many states in the county which include Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Orrisa among other states and it is a national issue.Apoorva Oza, chairperson, CSPC, said, "There is a need for learning and sharing lessons from past experience and from those areas who have succeed in arresting salinity and how it can be replicated elsewhere.''Farmers from villages around Maliya-Hatina of Junagadh shared their experience about the revival of Meghal River basin and how it brought socio-economic changes in the lives of 30 villages.

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