Supplemental irrigation of wheat with saline water

In arid and semi-arid regions, both rainfall and surface irrigation water supplies are unreliable and inadequate to meet crop water requirement. Groundwater in these regions is mainly marginally saline (2–6 dS/m) to saline (>6 dS/m) and could be exploited to meet crop water requirement if no adverse effects on crops and land resource occur. The fear of adverse effects has often restricted the exploitation of naturally occurring saline water. The results reveal that substituting a part or all except pre-sowing irrigation with saline water having an electrical conductivity (ECiw) of 8 dS/m is possible for cultivation of wheat. Similarly, saline water with ECiw ranging between 8 and 12 dS/m could be used to supplement at least two irrigations to obtain 90% or more of the optimum yield. In low rainfall years, the use of such waters for all irrigations, except pre-sowing, produced more yield than skipping irrigations. Apparently, even at this level of osmotic salt stress, matric stress is more harmful. Thus, it would be interesting to use such waters for wheat production in monsoon climatic regions.