Preface

The State of Food and Agriculture (2007, FAO report) shows that despite unprecedented global economic growth, 1.1 billion people continue to live in extreme poverty and more than 850 million people suffer from chronic hunger while ecosystems are being threatened as never before. In 2017, the number of undernourished people is estimated to have reached 821 million – around one person out of every nine in the world (The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World – 2018, FAO report).

Agriculture faces major problems – and they are perhaps as old as the agriculture – such as salinization and aridization, the first being a very common process, but difficult to control and ameliorate. According to some estimation, between 7% (about 930 million hectares) and 10% (approximately 954 million hectares) of the land areas are salt-affected. From these areas, about 60-100 million hectares are the result of human activity: poor irrigation, in particular, increases the salinity of agricultural land. Almost half of the world's irrigation systems are affected by salinization and waterlogging. However, the advantage of irrigation is evident: although irrigation systems occupy about 15% of global agricultural system, productivity provided by these surfaces is at least two fold higher than non-irrigated land.

In this scenario of food crisis and environmental problems, salinity and halophytes seem to act as two major key-factors.

The interest in the study of halophytes is still argued by theoretical reasons, and especially by the current context of human condition, regarded as a well-defined part of surrounding environment. Salinity has affected agriculture from millennia, having a deeply negative impact in agriculture and most likely, being involved in the fall of agriculture of some ancient flourishing civilizations.

There are several works – I refer here only on books, while the number of scientific publications must be huge – focused on different aspects of halophytes: biology, ecology, physiology, biochemistry, taxonomy.

However, in this field of study I learned that halophytes remain a fascinating and yet surprising topic and new approaches that bring additional data are always welcome.