Evaluation of the Effect of Different Leaching Fractions on Soil Salinity

Abstract

Soil salinisation is one of the main problems in agriculture. To overcome this problem, different methods of managing saline soils are used, including the practice of leaching under irrigation. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of different leaching fractions on saline soils in the Nguetiouro lowland in Gandiolais, in Senegal. For this purpose, a completely randomized block set-up has been implemented with three treatments, repeated three times: 1) T0 equivalent to a water volume input equal to the daily reference evapotranspiration (ETo), 2) T1 equivalent to a water volume input equal to the daily reference evapotranspiration plus 10% ETo of leaching and 3) T2 equivalent to a water volume input equal to the daily reference evapotranspiration of the medium plus 20% ETo of leaching. The results showed that leaching has an effect on soil salinity. The initial soil salt storage was reduced by 22.5%, 33.5%, and 50.6% in the first soil horizon, from 0 to 10 cm and by 14%, 35.3%, and 45% at depth from 10 to 30 cm for T0, T1, and T2, respectively. The fitting of simple linear regression models between electrical conductivity and soil moisture showed a negative linear relationship as a function of leaching fractions. The coefficients of determination of model are 0.74 for T0, 0.84 for T1 and 0.86 for T2 in the first soil horizon and 0.63 for T0, 0.83 for T1 and 0.88 for T2 in the depth form 10 to 30 cm. These results can be of great importance in the fight against soil salinity.