EFFECT OF SALINE IRRIGATION WATER ON MUSTARD (BRASSICA JUNCEA) CROP YIELD AND SOIL SALINITY IN A SEMI-ARID AREA OF NORTH INDIA

The groundwater in some parts of north India is generally saline and not suitable for drinking. However, it can be used for growing salt-tolerant crop plants. To explore the potential of using saline groundwater for farm production, a field experiment was conducted at Shahpur village, near Hisar in Haryana State, India, to study the effect of different qualities of irrigation water on mustard (Brassica juncea, cv. RH-30) crop growth, yield, water use efficiency and soil salinity. Treatments consisted of combinations of irrigation with saline groundwater (electrical conductivity (EC) 7.48 dS m(-1)), and a good quality canal water (EC 0.4 dS m(-1)) applied either alone, as blends or in alternate applications. In all treatments, canal water was used for pre-sowing irrigation. In mustard cultivation, saline groundwater with an EC of 7.48 dS m(-1) can be used safely to supplement all post-sowing irrigations with marginal decline in crop yield. Irrigation with saline groundwater gave a yield as high as 95% of the optimum crop yield obtained with fresh canal water. The temporal variation in salinity showed that mustard yield responds to the average salinity of the soil during the growing season. Thus saline groundwater is a good water source to exploit for supplemental irrigation.