Abstract
Soil salinity and climate change have a negative impact on global food production and security, especially in arid regions with limited water resources. Despite the importance of planting methods, irrigation, and soil amendments in improving crop yield, their combined impact on saline soil properties and cereal crop yield is unknown. Therefore, the current study investigated the combined effect of soil amendments (i.e., compost, C and zeolite, Z) and planting methods such as raised bed (M1) and conventional (M2), and different fractions of leaching requirements from irrigation water, such as 5% (L1) and 10% (L2), on the soil physio-chemical properties and wheat and maize productivity in an arid region. The combined application of C + Z, L2, and M1 decreased soil salinity (EC) and sodicity (ESP) after wheat production by 37.4 and 28.0%, respectively, and significantly decreased by these factors by 41.0 and 43.0% after a maize growing season. Accordingly, wheat and maize yield increased by 16.0% and 35.0%, respectively under such a combination of treatments, when compared to crops grown on unamended soil, irrigated with lower leaching fraction and planted using conventional methods. This demonstrates the significance of using a combination of organic and inorganic amendments, appropriate leaching requirements and the raised bed planting method as an environmentally friendly approach to reclaiming saline soils and improving cereal crop production, which is required for global food security.
Highlights
Water scarcity limited natural resources and rapid population growth have all had a negative impact on irrigated land in arid regions, increasing soil salinity and negatively impacting soil health and crop production [1,2]
The EC, SAR, and ESP decreased by 20.08%, 21.95%, and 19.59%, respectively, under irrigation to field capacity (FC) + 5% leaching requirements (LR) (L1); by 26.89%, 25.40%, and 22.83%, respectively, under irrigation to FC + 10% LR (L2)
Such parameters were reduced by 23.52%, 23.69%, and 21.22% under irrigation to FC + 5% LR (I1), respectively, and by 29.88%, 32.71%, and 29.95% under irrigation to FC + 10% LR (I2), respectively, compared to initial values in the following maize season
Summary
Water scarcity limited natural resources and rapid population growth have all had a negative impact on irrigated land in arid regions, increasing soil salinity and negatively impacting soil health and crop production [1,2]. Salt-affected soils have increased globally to approximately 930 Mha [5], with saline-alkaline soils accounting for the majority of this area [6]. Natural zeolites are good soil amendments because they have a high water and nutrient holding capacity, which improves infiltration rates, saturated hydraulic conductivity, cation exchange capacity, and prevents water loss through deep percolation [13,14,15,16,17]. They can be used as chelating agents and fertilizer [18]. The combination of Z and other common amendments, such as compost, may improve the efficiency of saline soil remediation, though this effect is still unknown, necessitating extensive research
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