Emerging Research in Alternative Crops

The Contribution of Alternative Crops to Food Security in Marginal Environments.- Grain Legumes May Enhance High-Quality Food Production in Europe.- Hypersaline Water for Alternative Crop Irrigation in Iran. Amending Soil Health to Improve Productivity of Alternate Crops in Marginal Sandy Soils of the UAE.- The Extraordinary Salt Tolerance of Quinoa. Cultivation of Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) in Desert Ecoregion.- Phenotyping the Combined Effect of Heat and Water Stress on Quinoa.- Root and Shoot Relation of the Quinoa and Forage Plants in Salt-Affected Clay Soil.- Cañahua (Chenopodium pallidicaule): A Promising New Crop for Arid Area.- Response of Amaranthus sp. to Salinity Stress: A Review.- Tef (Eragrostis tef): A Superfood Grain from Ethiopia with Great Potential as an Alternative Crop for Marginal Environments.- Safflower: A Multipurpose Crop for the Marginal Lands.- Jatropha Plantation in Oman.- Crop Potentialof Six Salicornia bigelovii Populations Under Two Salinity Water Treatments Cultivated in a Desert Environment: A Field Study.- The Potential of Cactus Pear (Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill.) as Food and Forage Crop.- Replacement of Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) with Poppy (Papaver somniferum L.) and Its Socioeconomic Impact in Afghanistan

Abdelaziz Hirich is a research scientist at ICBA center in UAE. He received his PhD in Agronomic Science at the University HASSAN II in Casablanca, Morocco. Dr. Hirich has worked after his PhD as a consultant in EU funded GLOBAQUA project and as a scientist in ICBA center. He is interested in irrigation management, reuse of treated wastewater, salinity, and climate change. Dr. Hirich has published about 17 journal papers. He has developed a large knowledge on irrigation and fertigation scheduling and management as well as the reuse of treated wastewater especially in dry areas. He worked on the introduction of quinoa in Morocco within the EU funded SWUPMED project (2009-2013) where he adapted quinoa to the southern Morocco conditions and tested its response to deficit irrigation and salinity. Hirich has also conducted several training, SALTMED training in Oxford-UK, Agricultural policies in Bari-Italy. He worked also as a consultant for several private study companies in irrigation project design, capacity building training and other agriculture related project. Dr. Hirich is collaborating with two senior scientists to publish this edited volume with Springer; Prof. Redouane Choukr-Allah and Prof. Ragab Ragab.


Redouane Choukr-Allah is a soil and water environmental expert with more than 25 years of experience in coordinating and managing field-based projects and technical teams involved in site specific activities. Prof. Choukr-Allah has extensive experience in use of saline water and the use of pre-treated sewage in agriculture, and soil and ground water pollution prevention.


Ragab Ragab (former AE of AJGS) is the Head of Water, Soils and Landscapes Group at Centre for Ecology & Hydrology in Oxfordshire, UK. Prof. Ragab is a leader of several projects in the UK and overseas. He is an expert reviewer for the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC), International adviser to UNDP, "Brazil National