The world needs for food and fiber continue to increase. Population growth in the developing countries peaked at 2. 4 percent a year in 1965, and has fallen to about 2. 1 percent. However, in many developing countries almost half the people are under 15 years of age, poised to enter their productive and reproductive years. The challenges to produce enough food for this growing population will remain great. Even more challenging is growing the food in the areas of greatest need. Presently the world has great surpluses of food and fiber in some areas while there are devastating deficiencies in other areas. Economic conditions and the lack of suitable infrastructure for distribution all too often limit the alleviation of hunger even when there are adequate supplies, sometimes even within the country itself. World hunger can only be solved in the long run by increasing crop production in the areas where the population is growing most rapidly. This will require increased efforts of both the developed and developing countries. Much of the technology that is so successful for crop production in the developed countries cannot be utilized directly in the developing countries. Many of the principles, however, can and must be adapted to the conditions, both physical and economic, of the developing countries.

During tbe last decade it bas been increasingly realized tbat tbe beavy demand on tbe limited land resources of tbe world bas made it necessary to protect culti- vated soUs from degradation and to reclaim tbose areas whicb bave lost tbeir pro- ductivity. Witb special reference to saline and alkaline soUs tbe International Society of Soll Science set up, in 1964, a Subcommission on Salt Mfected Solls witb a view to identifying and locating tbe salt affected solls of tbe world. Tbis Subcommission was entrusted witb tbe preparation of a world map of salt affected soils at scale 1 :5,000,000, a project wbicb it is conducting in cooperation witb tbe Hungarian Acad- emy of Sciences and Unesco. The present publication covers tbe European section of tbe world map of salt affected solls. It is tbe outcome of an international cooperation of soll scientists from different European countries wbo contributed tbe material necessary for tbe compilation of tbe map. Cooperation was also establisbed witb tbe F AO/Unesco Soll Map of tbe World project in order to secure correlation witb tbe international legend. Tbe profile descriptions included in this explanatory text and tbe criteria pro- posed for tbe subdivision of salt affected solls provide a basis for tbe transfer of in- formation and experience witbin the framework of aglobal inventory of soll re- sources. The publication draws attention to tbe potential hazards of salinity and alkalinlty wbicb may be a cause of failure of cost1y irrigation and land reclamation projects.