Effect of Saline Water Irrigation and Manuring On Available Water Content and Salinity of Soil.

Abstract Good water management along with appropriate soil management is necessary for sustainable crop production in drylands. A pot culture experiment was conducted to evaluate the response of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) to manuring with farm yard manure (FYM) or poultry manure (PM), and irrigation with water of two levels of salinity (0.11 and 2.0 dS m-1) at two irrigation intervals (daily and every second day) in sand dune soil in glasshouse conditions for ten weeks. Manure was applied at the rate 20 Mg ha-1. Soil water content measured 1hr before every irrigation demonstrated that soil treatment with PM could keep more water compared to the soil treated with FYM, while the control had least water content. FYM treatment resulted in 78 and 21% higher dry matter yield as compared to control and PM treatments, respectively under daily irrigation using good quality water. The increase was 29 and 55% respectively, when saline water was used for irrigation. Under the second day irrigation treatment similar trend was observed, FYM gave highest dry matter yield. The number of tillers and plant height showed that FYM was better than PM, which in term was better than control under irrigation with good quality water, regardless of irrigation interval. The order changed to FYM > control > PM when water of high salinity was used for irrigation. The electrical conductivity of the soil measured at the end of the experiment was slightly higher under PM, as compared to FYM and control treatments. A significant interaction between irrigation water quality and manure application was observed in affecting plant growth. PM aggravated the adverse affect of saline water on plant growth by increasing soil salinity.