Effect of Irrigation Salinity Water on Soil Properties of Nagaur Region, Rajasthan, India

Abstract

A survey was undertaken area to determine the quality of underground irrigation water, its effect on soil properties in the irrigated areas. One hundred water samples collected from irrigated area of Nagaur district of Rajasthan revealed that 0.66 per cent water samples were good water, 1.33 per cent were marginally saline, 16.67 per cent were saline, 18 per cent were high SAR saline, 32 per cent were marginally alkali, 20 per cent were alkali and 11.34 were per cent high alkali categories, respectively. These results indicate that brackish water irrigation aggravates the degree of soil salinization and alkalization.Most of these waters had dominance of sodium followed by calcium, magnesium and potassium in cations and chloride as major anion followed by bicarbonate, carbonates and sulphate. The pH of irrigation water had significant and positive correlation with pH and SAR of soil, whereas, significant but negative correlation was found with micro nutrient Zn, Cu, Fe, Mn and microbial biomass C, N and P. The EC of irrigation water had significant and positive correlation with EC of soil, whereas, significant but negative correlation was found with pH of soil. The resulted significantly reduction of EC, pH, ESP and bulk density, improvement in infiltration rate and availability of N, P, K and micronutrients.