EVALUATION OF AMELIORATION TREATMENTS AND ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF USING SALINE-SODIC WATER FOR RICE AND WHEAT PRODUCTION ON SALT-AFFECTED SOILS UNDER ARID LAND CONDITIONS

This paper reports the amelioration of saline-sodic soils with gypsum and/or farm manure in a 3-year rice-wheat rotation at three sites, using saline-sodic waters. The treatments were: (1) irrigation with saline-sodic water without amendment (control) (2) gypsum at 50% ( gypsum requirement of soil (G50): (3) farm manure at 25 Mg ha(-1) annually before rice (FM): and (4) gypsum at 25% gypsum requirement of soil along, with 25 Mg ha(-1) of farm manure (G25 + FM). Soil salinity/sodicity at all sites decreased. treatment effectiveness order being G50 > G25 + FM > FM > control. Crop growth, grain yield and net benefits were found to be directly proportional to the treatment reclamation effectiveness. For economic yields of rice and wheat crops front saline-sodic soils and water. gypsum at least Lit 50% GR once or (gypsum) at 25% GR once along with 25 Mg FM ha(-1) each year are required. Owing to high net benefit, G50 proved the best treatment at all the sites, the value being, the highest for site followed by sites 1 and 3. A high net benefit oil farmers' fields with farmer participation implicitly highlighted the added advantage of farmers skills for agronomic operations since the farmer at site 2 was more skilful. Copyright (C) 2008 John Wiley & Soils, Ltd.