Response of Wheat to Soil Amendments with Poor Quality Irrigation Water in Salt Affected Soil

The experiment was conducted on farmer’s field at District Lakki Marwat (NWFP) during Rabi (spring) 2007-08, in order to study the response of wheat to different soil treatments irrigated with poor quality irrigation water. The treatments including control, tillage, gypsum and sulphuric acid were applied before sowing of the wheat crop. The treatments were arranged in a randomized complete block (RCB) design with three replications. The data revealed that soil amendments significantly improved the growth and grain yield of wheat. Plant height, number of tillers plant , number of grains spike and 1000 grains weight were significantly 1 1 increased with all the soil treatments over control crop. Regarding grain yield, all the inputs enhanced the yield over control, whereas gypsum performed significantly well when applied in combination with deep tillage. The highest grain yield of 3989 kg ha was obtained from combined application of deep tillage + 100% gypsum 1 requirement of the soil showing 59.87% increased over control. Thus, it may be concluded that deep tillage and gypsum both in combination proved more effective in combating ill effects of salts and improving wheat yield in salt affected soil.