Abstract:
Effective use of salt affected
soils needs the development of the most
efficient and suitable reclamation
technology to optimize farm management
and better crop yields. Different chemical
methods and amendments are used to
reclaim the salt affected soils and after
reclamation such soils may be used for
sustainable agricultural production. Choice
of a chemical amendment depends on its
availability, cost, handling and time of
application. Application of sulfur is very
effective technique to suppress the uptake of
undesired toxic elements and to improve the
quantity and quality of produce in salt
affected soils. So, a three-year field
experiment was carried out to evaluate the
comparative reclamation efficiency of two
sulfur sources, i.e elemental sulfur and
gypsum to improve the soil conditions by
reducing the salinity/sodicity impact and
yield characteristics of rice and wheat crop.
A saline-sodic field {(ECe = 6.10 dS m-1,
pHs = 9.21 and SAR = 41.67 (mmol L-1)1/2,
SO4-S = 16.0 (mg kg-1) and soil gypsum
requirement (SGR) of 9.10 t ha-1 for 0-15 cm
soil depth} was selected. The treatments
included were: control, gypsum application
@ 100 SGR, S application @ 25, 50, 57,
100 and 125 % of SGR. Statistical analysis
of three-year pooled data showed that
varying levels of sulfur and gypsum
significantly improved soil properties and
rice-wheat yield than control, however,
gypsum @ 100% of soil GR was at par with
S @ 125 and 100% of SGR in term terms of
improving yield component of both test
crops and reducing soil pHs, ECe and SAR.
Efficiency of treatment could be arranged as
gypsum @ 100% SGR = S @ 125 % of
SGR= S @ 100% of SGR> S @ 75 % of
SGR> S @ 50 % of SGR> S @ 25% of
SGR>control.
