In his Accelerated Reclamation of Alkaline Argillaceous Soils of Azerbaijan, Professor Mukhtar Abduyev describes the tackling of a long-established problem which had enormous implications for Azerbaijan''s security of food supply. The task was to find more efficient methods of reclaiming the saline soils that covered more than 60% of the republic''s lowlands - some 2.5 million hectares were resistant to improvement. Existing methods of reclamation involved vast amounts of water for leaching and the construction of extensive drainage systems; these methods could take up to 10 years to become ef