Halophytes Energy Feedstocks: Possibilities for Argentina

Abstract

Soil’s salinity constitutes a serious menace for agricultural productivity in the whole world. There are a number of halophytes that can generate bioenergy in Argentina. In this chapter, it was evaluated the expansion of halophytes crops which are expected to have great possibilities at worldwide level, while in other countries they are already considerably increasing. These crops do not compete for lands with those destined to food production. The agro-climatic zoning permitted to identify areas with different potential yields, as per to their environmental conditions. It was necessary to identify the requirements, limits and bio-meteorological tolerance and conditions for each of species, taking into account the climatological characteristics of native areas and the regions of successful cultivation around the world. In order to define the agro-climatic fitness of each culture in Argentina, it was worked with the weather data corresponding to the period 1981-2010 of all meteorological stations. With all the information gathered, the data was evaluated. As from the available database, geographical limits were mapped for the different variables that define aptitude classes: optimal zone, very suitable, suitable, marginal and nonsuitable. To obtain the maps, it was used a series of previously interpolated bioclimatic variables, which afterwards were processed with the Arc-GIS 9.3 Program. Based on FAO salinity and alkalinity classification, Drylands salinity and alkalinity were plotted in Argentina. The Agro-ecological zoning consisted in the division of an area of land into smaller units, which have similar characteristics related to land suitability, potential production and environmental impact. The overlap of the agroclimatic suitability map with Drylands salinity and/or alkalinity map (according to species) shows the agro-ecological zoning and defines the potential growing areas for each species. Among the species investigated by our working group, this the chapter includes: perennial species: Arundo donax (giant reed), Euphorbia tirucalli (pencil tree), Moringa oleifera (West Indian ben), Phalaris arundinacea (reed canary grass), Pongamia pinnata (Indian Beech), Salvadora persica (toothbrush tree) and annual species: Salsola kali (tumbleweed, glasswort) and Chloris gayana (Rhodes grass), identifying their agroecological aptitude for their cultivation in Argentina. These halophytes may be cultivated as dryland crops on thousands of hectares of saline or alkaline soils with moderate rainfalls in Argentina.