Salinity is the acute problem of Pakistan as 26 percent of the irrigated agricultural area is affected with this menace, Director General, Ayub Agricultural Research Institute, Dr Muhammad Rashid told a two-day international conference on "recent techniques for abating soil and water salinity," here on Thursday. He told agricultural scientists and those from Oman and Australia in his keynote address on "management of salt affected soils and brackish water" that salinity was global problem and out of 230 million hectare irrigated land of the world, 45 million hectare was salt affected. He said India, Pakistan, Iran, Russia, the United States, Egypt, Thailand, Australia, Argentina and South Africa were badly affected countries and extent of problems in Pakistan is estimated at 6.8 million hectares. He said scientists of Ayub Agricultural Research Institute had developed salt tolerant varieties and crop-sowing methods contributing to controlling this problem. He also talked about the importance of collaborative efforts of all agriculture research institutions to tackle this problem. Faisalabad's University of Agriculture Faculty Dean Professor Dr Rao Iftikhar Ahmad talked about the importance of applying latest techniques to reclaim salt affected land. He said biotechnology techniques could be helpful in developing salt tolerant varieties. Pindi Bhattian's Soil Salinity Research Institute Director Dr Shehzada Munawar Mehdi said that the conference would be helpful to guide the struggle to control salinity and in sharing experiences and techniques for mutual benefit. The scientists then gave research papers on various aspects of soil salinity. Copyright Business Recorder, 2008