Desertification (land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting mainly from adverse human impacts) is the main environmental problem of dry lands, which occupy more than 40 per cent of the total global land area. The phenomenon threatens about 3.6 billion hectares and currently affects the livelihood of about 900 million people. Thl! world is now losing annually about 1.5 million hectares of total irrigated lands (240 million hectares) due mostly to salinization, mainly in drylands. Salt affected soils are widely distributed throughout the arid and semi-arid regions, and particularly severe in China (7 million ha), India (20 million ha), Pakistan (3.2 million ha), USA (5.2 million ha), as well as Near East, southern Europe and elsewhere. Demands on production have increased the pressure on existing productive land and moved the limits of production onto increasingly marginal lands. Wise land-use practices have yet to be developed for such conditions. The Executive Director of UNEP reported to the Governing Council in February 1992 concerning the "Status of Desertification and Implementation of the United Nations Plan of Action to Comtat Desertification (PACD)". The Report concludes that major efforts to implement the PACD had gJne into supporting measures rather than concrete corrective field operations. Little evidence of progrl!ss was found in irrigated croplands, rainfed croplands or rangelands. It was recommended that every piece of land should be used in keeping with its ecological characteristics, natural capabilities and constraints.

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1. Overview of problems and prospects for utilizing halophytes as a resource for livestock and for rehabilitation of degraded lands.- 2. Global distribution and potential for halophytes.- 3. Silt affected soils as the ecosystem for halophytes.- 4. Use of halophyte forages for rehabilitation of degraded lands.- 5. Utilization of halophytic plants for fodder production with brackish water in subtropic deserts.- 6. Utilization of halophytes by livestock on rangelands: Problems and prospects.- 7. F[alophytes in mixed feeds for livestock.- 8. Halophytic shrubs in semi-arid regions of Australia: Value for grazing and landstabilization.- 9. Halophytes and halophytic plant communities in Inner-Asia.- 10. Forage halophytes and salt-tolerant fodder crops in the Mediterranean Basin.- 11. Halophytes and halophytic plant communities in the Arab region: Their potential as a rangeland resource.- 12. North American halophytes: Potential use in animal husbandry.- 13. Halophytes as a resource for livestock husbandry in South America.- 14. Halophytic coastal marsh vegetation in East Africa.- 15. Halophytes of the Indian desert-communities on the various `ranns'.- 16. Banni grasslands and halophytes: A case study from India.- 17. Potentials for cultivation of halophytic crops on saline wastelands and sandy deserts in Pakistan to overcome feed gap for grazing animals.- 18. Forage production from salt-affected and water-logged areas in Punjab, Pakistan: A case study.- 19. Prospects for saltbush (Atriplex spp.) as animal feed in irrigated and marginal lands in Sudan.- 20. Halophytes and desertification control in Iraq.- 21. Feed value of some halophytic range plants of arid regions of Iran.- 22. Use of edible shrubs in pasture improvement under Mediterranean environment innorthern Syria.-23. The potential economic use of halophytes for agricultural development of southernMorocco.- 24. Production from grazing sheep on revegetated saltland in Western Australia.- 25. Impacts of halophytes on animal health and nutrition.- 26. Small ruminant feeding trials on the Arabian peninsula with Salicornia bigelovii Torr..- 27. Effect of feeding A triplex amnicola on growth and carcass quality of dwarf goats.- 28. Halophytes as animal feeds in the Egyptian deserts.- 29. A lhagi sparsifolia Schap.: A potentially utilizable forage in saline soil.- 30. Massive propagation of halophytes (Distichlis spicata and Tamarix spp.) on the highly saline-alkaline soils in the ex-Lake Texcoco, Mexico.- 31. Vetiver grass, its potential in the stabilisation and rehabilitation of degraded saline land.- 32. Some features of salt tolerance in Senna (Cassia acutifolia), in Sudan.- 33. Characterization of progeny clones belonging to natural Sicilian Atriplex halimuspopulations.- Key words index.- Authr Index.