Salinity Tolerance of Pacific Island Crops

Researchers at ANU have developed new technology for desalination of water. It is much cheaper and uses less energy than reverse osmosis. The system could be very useful for deploying in Pacific Island countries where fresh water is in limited supply, for example island communities, and there is little capacity for energy production to drive desalination plants. However, significant amounts of salt remain and it is unlikely to be suitable a potable water but could have application for irrigation of crops.

The ANU group have received funding from ACIAR/DFAT to develop the technology and assess its efficacy for providing irrigation water.

The aim of this part of the project, to be conducted at Monash University, is twofold:

(1) to compare the published literature on salinity tolerance of crops commonly grown in Pacific island countries, and other tropical crops that could be suitable for cultivation;

(2) To conduct experiments to assess the salinity tolerance of sorghum in glass house trials and compare this to the salinity tolerance of taro and cassava previously conducted at Monash (funded by ACIAR) and already published.