Cyclic use of saline and non-saline water to increase water use efficiency and soil sustainability on drip irrigated maize in a semi-arid region

Abstract

Use of saline water for irrigation is a strategy to mitigate water shortage. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of the cyclic and constant use of saline and non-saline water on drip irrigated maize yield and irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE). Nine field treatments were laid out based on alternative irrigation management of non-saline and saline water combinations. The treatments were: two salinity levels of 3.5 and 5.7 dS/m and freshwater (0.4 dS/m) application in every one, three and five saline water application (1:1, 3:1 and 5:1, respectively). Results showed that the 1:1 combination management was the best in terms of crop yield and IWUE. In this treatment, salt concentration at the end of growing season was not significantly changed compared to its initial condition. If off-season precipitation or leaching was available, the 3:1 and 5:1 treatments were appropriated. Highest and lowest values of IWUE were 15.3 and 8.7 kg/m3 for the 1:1 management using water salinity of 3.5 dS/m and the treatment of constant irrigation with water salinity of 5.7 dS/m, respectively. Under low off-season precipitations, artificial leaching is essential for land sustainability in most treatments.

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

“…Total water consumptive values were lower when saline water was used (3390 m 3 ha −1 for 2017-18), which could have been attributed to less evapotranspiration rate with saline water irrigation compared to threshold water quality for irrigation [62]. These results are also supported in previous studies carried out by Hassanli and Ebrahimian [15], Naresh, et al [24], Chauhan et al [63]. According to them, those options for the alternate use of saline underground and fresh water should hold greater assurance that produces higher grain yield of wheat for the similar salt load to soils.…”

“…Furthermore, the agricultural production per year is continually decreasing due to drought and fresh water shortage caused by other factors than the sum of the losses [1]. In this context, the alternate use of saline and fresh water can be an alternative to increase crop productivity and simultaneously reduce the pressure on fresh water [8,15,59]. In order to minimize the potentially hazardous effects of saline water on crop yield, farmers in the regions have not been able to adopt alternate saline and fresh water irrigation strategies.…”

“…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.…”

Soil Salinity and Maize Growth under Cycle Irrigation in Coastal Soils

“…Precipitations of the autumn-winter period often play an important role in salt leaching of the soil that had saline water irrigation during the previous spring-summer season (Monteleone and Libutti, 2012). Similar studies have reported that the increased soil salinity levels caused by cycle irrigation with saline water return to an acceptable level by salt flushing of non-growing season rainfall (Sharma et al, 1994;Kiani and Mirlatifi, 2012;Hassanli and Ebrahimian, 2016). The present study area usually has a precipitation of about 140 mm during November to February.…”

“…Also, several studies have investigated the effects of saline soil or saline irrigation on maize physiological responses and productivity (Kaddah and Ghowail, 1964; Blanco et al, 2008; Kang et al, 2010; Leogrande et al, 2016; Butcher et al, 2018). Recently, Hassanli and Ebrahimian (2016) reported that cyclic use of saline and non‐saline water increased the water‐use efficiency of drip irrigated maize in a semiarid region, and Murad et al (2018) stated that conjunctive irrigation of saline and freshwater increased maize yield in a saline coastal region of Bangladesh. So far in the coastal areas of eastern China, blending deep‐well water with saline water for agricultural irrigation is a typical practice for extensive coastal farmlands (Yao et al, 2014), and there exists scant information about cycle irrigation with fresh and brackish water.…”