effect of groundwater salinity on maize water requirements and yield

lysimeter tests were conducted on shallow groundwater that supplies part of the maize water requirements to determine crop yield. twenty-four 0.8 m diameter lysimeters were buried in the test field at a depth of 1.2 m. the lysimeters were filled with the field soil (silty loam) and planted with summer maize. the groundwater depth in the lysimeters was set at 0.6 m using marriotte bottles. three groundwater salinity levels (2.5, 5 and 7.5 ds/m) at deficit and full irrigation levels (70% and 100% of evaporation from pan class a before irrigation, respectively). the water was replenished on a weekly basis. a factorial experiment was used in a randomized complete block design with three replications. the control treatment was maize planted and watered with full irrigation and no ground water. the results indicated that the percent of groundwater contribution at full irrigation for the three salinity treatments were 5.28, 4.61 and 3.76, respectively. for deficit irrigation, the results were 25, 22.09 and 19.71, respectively. all differences were significant for the 0.05 duncan multiple range test. for deficit irrigation, the grain yield was 23.6, 28.3 and 30.1 % less, respectively, than for the control for the three salinity treatments. dry matter was 33.2, 35.8 and 36.6 % less, respectively, than for the control. at full irrigation, the grain yield was, respectively, 19.2, 25.6 and 22.2 % reduced and the dry matter was 25.6, 31.2 and 24.5 % less than for the control. at full irrigation, the groundwater contribution decreased as the groundwater salinity increased. lower evaporation from the soil surface may cause decreased amounts of salt rising into the root zone, resulting in an increase in relative yield.