Effect of water quality on yield and water use efficiency of irrigated wheat crop Pramod Jha, S.K. Srivastava and S.K. Dubey 1 Central Soil and Water Conservation Research and Training Institute, Research Centre-Chhalesar,Agra-282006. E-mail: skdubeyagra@gmail.com 1 ARTICLE INFO Article history : Received : January, 2012 Revised : July, 2012 Accepted : September, 2012 Key words : Waterquality, Yield, Water use efficiency, Semi-arid region, Wheat ABSTRACT The quality of irrigation water deteriorated in semi-arid region because of over exploitation of ground water. An investigation on effect of irrigation water quality on yield and water use efficiency of irrigated wheat crop was carried out on farmers fields at typical ravine watershed located at Etmadpur, Agra. The study comprised of Green manure (T ), 25% more seed rate and fertilizer than recommended dose (T ), T + gypsum (100% neutralization of RSC value of irrigation water) (T ), T + FYM (10 t ha y ) (T ), and Farmers practice (T ) were imposed. The results indicated that water quality had pronounced effect on soil physico-hydrological properties and affected the yield of wheat crop. Imposition of treatment of gypsum and FYM has improved yield and water use efficiency of wheat crop in all the three sites. Mean yield across different sites ranged from 27 to 35 q ha under different treatments. In general, imposition of treatment over farmer's practice (100% NPK) resulted in improvement of yield of crop in all the sites. Application of gypsum based on 100% neutralization of RSC value of irrigation water resulted in significant improvement of crop yield and water use efficiency of crops. 1 2 2 3 2 4 5 -1 -1 -1 1. INTRODUCTION Crop production in the arid and semi-arid regions is dependent on irrigation. The hot and dry climate of these regions requires that the irrigation water does not contain soluble salts in amounts that are harmful to the plants or have an adverse effect on the soil properties. Water of such good quality is usually not available in sufficient quantities to satisfy the water requirements of all the crops grown. Under these conditions the farmers are forced to use irrigation water with high quantities of dissolved salts or high residual sodium carbonate (RSC) invariably accompanied by yield reductions of most crops. Indiscriminate use of such water can often lead to crop failures and to the development of saline or sodic soils which, in turn, require expensive treatment to make them productive again. On the other hand, when saline water is skillfully used, it can contribute to the successful production of a variety of crops (FAO, 1988). Due to over withdrawal of ground water the quality of water has been deteriorated. The problem is acute particularly in semi-arid and arid ecosystem; where over exploitation of ground water has led to the problem of salinity and sodicity. Here, an attempt has been made to determine effect of poor quality of water on yield and water use efficiency of irrigated wheat crop and to devise suitable strategy for augmenting yield under poor quality of irrigation water. The investigation was carried out on farmers fields at typical ravine watershed located at Etmadpur, Agra. The shallow gullies were converted to terraces by levelling and bench terracing and put under agriculture. The study area is located in a sub-tropical semi-arid region having annual precipitation of 725 mm, extremes of minimum and maximum of 370 mm and 1130 mm, respectively (average of 50 years). The average annual temperature is 23 C with extremes of one day maximum and minimum temperatures ranging between 48.3 and -0.3 C, respectively. The river Yamuna flows on the southern side of the Watershed. The soils of the study area were alluvial in origin and come under soil order Entisols, subgroup mixed loamy sand hyperthermic typic ustifluvent (Soil Survey Staff, 1978). The soils show no evidence of the development of pedogenic horizons. Particle size analysis was performed according to pipette method (Piper 1942). Soil pH was determined in a 2. MATERIALSAND METHODS o o E st d. 1 9 7 2 Vol. , No. , pp , 201 40 3 236-239 2 Indian Journal of Soil Conservation Online URL:http://indianjournals.com/ijor.aspx?target=ijor:ijsc&type=home