The agriculture ministry now says removing that contaminated topsoil may be effective.

Drainage and quality topsoil are essential to growth of the fine turf.

The surface soil salt content increases gradually from south to north in the horizontal direction.

Out of necessity we could develop bacteria to extract resources directly from the regolith — a useful technology for Earth as well.

One major problem is that degraded soils become compacted and so absorb less water, which then tends to run off the surface, taking topsoil with it.