Rice growers in the northwestern city of Lambayaque, on Peru's northern coast, have launched a program to reclaim soils that have high saline content as a result of inappropriate irrigations systems used in the past. Working on the project are 178 farmers who lost their lands to the salinity process, says Enrique Salazar, director of the Lambayaque irrigation program.

Over the next six months they will build 7,660 meters of main drainage and 18,000 meters of subsidiary drainage to clean the soils affected and to collect salinated water.

According to the Agriculture Ministry, 28,000 of the 65,000 hectares of rice paddies in the Chancay-Lambayeque Valley are affected by high salinity, a phenomenon that could render farmland useless in 25 years.