Abstract
Soil is an essential and nonrenewable natural resource from which most of the global food is produced. Each soil has had its own history and its present conditions due to the influences of many different factors. This chapter presents an introduction about the soils of Libya and demonstrates the challenges that the country is currently facing as a result of soil erosions, salinization, pollution, and climate change while proposing the potential solutions to these challenges to improve food security in the country. Libya covers an area of about 180 million hectares and located in the arid and semiarid regions of the world. Thus, most of the soils are undeveloped or partially developed. Dry climatic conditions in Libya resulted in high accumulation of calcium carbonate in soils, with the presence of gypsum in some areas as well as salt accumulation which leads to naturally saline soils. Most agricultural activities are mainly located on a narrow strip along the Mediterranean coast that receives the highest rainfall in the country (up to 600 mm annually), and in low mountains and scattered oases in the desert.
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The author acknowledges Dr. Naji Shoaib, Abdalla Adda, and Mohamed Alwasa for providing selected photos with their permissions to use them in this chapter.
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Zurqani, H.A. (2021). Introduction. In: Zurqani, H.A. (eds) The Soils of Libya. World Soils Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66368-1_1
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