Forget desalination, farmers should just grow their crops with saltwater. That possibility may not be farfetched, according to new research. Dutch scientists who pioneered a salt-tolerant potato won a USAid contest in October.
The effort started when a Dutch farmer decided to try to work with saltwater instead of fighting it.
"Dutch farmer Marc Van Rijsselberghe...has used saline water to kill some plants in order to identify which ones are able to thrive," Voice of America reported. "Working with scientists from the Free University of Amsterdam, Van Rijsselberghe and his team divided a farm into eight plots covered with a network of irrigation pipes."