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FromVOALearningEnglish, thisistheAgricultureReport.
Climatechangehascausedariseinsealevels. Thishasincreasedtheamountofsaltinfreshwaterusedoncoastalfarms. Asaresultfarmersareincreasinglyunabletousefieldsclosetothesea.
Scientistscallthisprocess "salinization." Thetermcomesfromtheword "saline" -- whichmeansamixtureofsaltandwater. TheUnitedNationsFoodandAgricultureOrganizationsayssalinizationisreducingtheworld'sirrigatedlandsby 1 to 2 percenteveryyear. Irrigationistheprocessofsupplyinglandwithfreshwaterfromotherareas.
ButafarmerintheNetherlandsisnowusingamixtureofseaandfreshwatertogrowhealthyandtastyvegetables. MarcVanRijsselberghestartedwithanexperiment. Heputseveralkindsofplantsinsaline.
"Weputinalotofplantsinthefieldsandthenweputin, puttheminfreshwaterandinseawaterandallthevarietiesbetweenit, andthenweseewhichvarietyissurvivingandwhichvarietyisdying."
Mr. VanRijsselbergheworkedontheprojectwithscientistsfromtheFreeUniversityofAmsterdam. Hedividedafarmintoeightirrigatedareas. Separatepipespumpedfreshandseawater, andacomputerprogramcreatedwaterwitheightlevelsofsalinity.
"Andthencomputersays ‘go'andthenitgoestothefieldsanddrippingirrigationstartstoworkandwearegoingtokillplants. That'sit."
Computerizedmeasuringdevicescalled "sensors" controlledthewaterlevelsandthelevelsofsalinity. Mr. VanRijsselberghesayshewasabletoharvestvegetablesfrommostoftheeighttestareas. Hesaysthevegetablesweresmallerthanthosegrowninfreshwater. Buthesaystheyalsohavemoresugarandsalt, sotheytastebetter.
"It'samiracle. Imean, itshouldn'tbeacarrot, itshouldbedyingifwelookatthedatasthatareavailableintheworldatthemoment."
Thefarmergrewcarrots, cabbage, onionsandbeetroot. Buthefoundthatpotatoesgrewbetterthantheothervegetablesinthecombinationofseaandfreshwater. Mr. VanRijsselberghesaysfourkindsofthesepotatoeswererecentlysenttoPakistan, wherethousandsofhectaresoflandhavebeendamagedbysalinization. FarmersinPakistanwilltesttheDutchpotatoestoseeiftheycanbegrowninthosefields.
Andthat'stheVOALearningEnglishAgricultureReport. Formoreagricultureandenvironmentstories, gotoourwebsitelearningenglish.voanews.com. I'mCatyWeaver.