The coastal area of Bangladesh lying in the sou thern deltaic zones of the country covers about 3.2 million hectares. About 0.833 million hectares of land in the coast is affected by varying degrees of salinity. Major limitations of saline soils are high salinity of soil, river and ground water; ionic and osmotic imbalance; low to very low soil fertility and scarcity of quality irrigation water during drought season. A field experiment was conducted in the coastal saline soil of the Khulna district. The area is mostly under monocropped local T. aman practices having cropping sequence of Fallow-Fallow-T. aman. Topsoil, river, pond and ground water salinity in this area ranges from 3.8-13.8, 1.35-14.9, 2.6-6.7 and 3.5-8.3 dS/m respectively during January to May. At the advent of summer, the topsoil initiates the cracking and extends to a few cm during the peak period both horizontally and vertically. Soil is incapable of retaining irrigation or rainwater as per crop demand at the beginning of the season. Frequent irrigation with pond water increases the germination (>20%) of exotic BINA Mung-2. BINA Mung-2 can exist at soil salinity (ECe ) of 6.5-9.8 dS/m and with irrigated water (ECw) of 3.0-4.8 dS/m up to 45 days after sowing during drought period. Soil test based fertilizer dose responded better growth and yield than other recommended doses.

A field experiment was carried out in a slightly to moderately coastal saline soil of the Khulna district. The area is mostly under monocropped practices having cropping intensity of >114%. Topsoil, river and ground water salinity in these area range from 1.7-2.6, 0.25-0.39 and 1.4-3.2 dS/m during July to December respectively. Soil and tidal riv er water salinity doesn’t severely affect the growth and yield of both HYV and local rice varieties in this period. BR-23 performed better growth and yield than BR-30 and local varieties. The degree of yield performance were BR-23>BR-30>Jutabalam>Kachra when the other relevant parameters remained constant