The world population in 1950 was 2. 5 billion and is more than 5 billion today. The agriculture community, however, has responded remarkably well to meeting the increased need for food and fiber. While the population growth during this period averaged almost 2% annually, the production of grain increased at an even faster rate. From 1950 to 1973, grain production increased 3. 1% annually, but slowed to about 2% from 1973 to 1984. There fore, as a whole, the world has more grain per capita available today than ever before. Several countries that were food importers just a few years ago are...

In keeping with the spirit of an Advanced Series in the Agricultural Sciences, we have attempted to address herein most of the current research areas being used to characterize, describe and manage salt-affected soils. Because of a certain amount of personal bias inherent in our individual viewpoints and backgrounds, some areas have been accorded more emphasis than others. It has been our goal, however, to provide either detail about, or at least a recent reference to, each major area of current soil salinity research. This information, coupled with what we hope to be a rather logical...