Use of brackish water for the reclamation of dense saline-sodic soils by auger hole technology and economic growth of wheat crop

Currently, availability of good-quality water is falling short of the crop requirement, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions of Pakistan. A field experiment was conducted on dense saline-sodic soils at Tehsil Toba Tek Singh at three sites. The initial ECe, SAR and pHs of the soils ranged from 9.86 to 25.30 dS m-1, 17.1 to 46.7 and 7.57 to 7.98, respectively at 0-15 cm depth. The treatments were: T1= Tube well water (TW) alone, T2= TW-Canal water (CW), T3= TW-CW + one auger hole per 30 m2 refilled with gypsum and rice husk, T4= TW-CW + one auger hole per 60 m2 refilled with gypsum and rice husk. Overall T3 was best in decreasing ECe, SAR and pHs at all three sites. Maximum decrease (%) in ECe, SAR and pHs was 70.23 (T3) at site 1, 69.67 (T4) at site 2, and 4.64 (T1) at site 1, respectively at 0-15 cm depth. Maximum wheat grain yield (4180, 3805 and 4259 kg per ha at sites 1, 2 and 3, respectively) were recorded with T3. Maximum benefit cost ratio was 3.47, 3.38 and 2.95 with TW-CW + one auger hole per 30 m2 refilled with gypsum and rice husk (1:1 ratio by volume) at sites 3, 1 and 2, respectively.