Response of sunflower to conjunctive use of saline drainage water and non-saline canal water irrigation

Abstract

In arid and semi-arid regions, effluent from subsurface drainage is often saline and in the absence of natural outlet, its disposal is a serious environmental threat. A field experiment was conducted on a sandy loam soil to evaluate the effects of conjunctive use of saline drainage water (EC iw = 7.2 -9.8 dS m 7 1 ; SAR = 8.4 -13.5) and non-saline canal water (EC iw = 0.3 -0.4; SAR = 0.6 -0.8) in different modes on soil salinity build-up, growth and yield of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) and succeeding sorghum (Sorghum bicolour L.). The results indicated that pre-plant irrigation with saline drainage water decreased the growth and yield of sunflower significantly. The effect was not significant when non-saline water was used for pre-plant irrigation. The mean relative grain yield of sunflower irrigated with only saline drainage water was 56.9%. Substitution of non-saline canal water for first two irrigations increased the yield to 87.2%. Alternate irrigations in different treatments resulted in yields of 65.8 to 81.9% of the potential. Sorghum fodder yield decreased significantly where all the irrigations were applied with saline drainage water to previous sunflower crop. Increased soil salinity and alkalinity hazards were eliminated by the subsurface drainage during the ensuing monsoon period.

Conjunctive use of saline and non-saline water in an irrigation district of the Yellow River Basin

“…Several research workers have confirmed the potential of saline water usage for wheat Kiani and Mirlatifi, 2012;Sharma et al, 2013), maize (Jiang et al, 2010), and sunflower (Sharma et al, 2005;Choudhary et al, 2006) through short-term field experiments. However, the traditional method based on field experiments is always costly and laborious, and also cannot be generalized and applied to the whole district (Rasouli et al, 2013).…”

Sustaining Yield of Winter Wheat under Alternate Irrigation Using Saline Water at Different Growth Stages: A Case Study in the North China Plain

“…Previous studies have reported that the saline/salty water can be effectively used to irrigate several crop species [12][13][14][15][16][17]. The continuous use of saline water for irrigation leads to long-term environmental modes of alternate use of saline and fresh water and to explore the tangible irrigation scheduling for winter wheat production using underground saline water during different growth stages of winter wheat in the county of NCP.…”

Effects of Alternate Irrigation with Saline and Non-Saline Water on Sorghum Crop Manured with Elaeagnus angustifolia Leaves Using 15N

“…Sharma et al [7] mentioned that cyclic irrigations with canal and drainage water at different sequences resulted in wheat yields of 88% to 94% of the potential, at the same time it did not cause any significant reduction in pearl-millet and sorghum yields. Also Sharma et al [8] reported a sunflower yield of 82% of the potential using the same manner of irrigation technique. Investigating the impact of irrigation by saline water at different growth stages of wheat, Mojid and Zahid Hossain [9] reported that irrigation by saline water (7 ds m -1 ) at grain filling stage resulted in a lower grain yield (by 30% as compared to the control), this revealing that the grain filling stage of wheat is the most sensitive to irrigation water salinity.…”