Bethelhem Awoke Sheferia*, Mequanint Birhan Alem and Awel Seid
The declining availability of fresh water has become a worldwide problem, which maintains the development of alternative, secondary quality water resources for agricultural use. In this study, the effects of different irrigation intervals at different salinity levels of irrigation water impacts on soil physico-chemical properties were investigated using three irrigation intervals (I1 =3days, I2= 4days and I3= 5 days) with four salinity levels (S1= 4dS m-1, 5dS m-1 and 6 dS m-1) in a factorial combination using CRD with three replications. Statistical analysis showed that salinity, irrigation interval and their interaction highly significance effects (p<0.001) on electrical conductivity of soil. Irrigation with highest salinity level (S4) with five days of irrigation interval resulted in the salt accumulation in the root zone from 0.41 μS m-1 (before sowing) up to 13.73 μS/m at the end of growing period and exchangeable Sodium of 0.2 cmol/Kg was found before sowing while 0.82cmol/kg was found after harvesting. Therefore, based on soil salinity and crop yield, irrigation interval 3 days at lower levels of irrigation water salinities (up to 3 dS m-1) is suitable for soybean production in the study area. The study also showed that salinity and irrigation interval significantly affects soil nutrients (p< 0.001) despite their interaction were not significantly effects on soil nutrients. Increased the concentration of salt in irrigation water reduce availability of nutrients in the soil. Soil which was irrigated by salinity level four (S4=6dS/m) had lowest Organic Matter, Organic Carbon, N, P & K content. Highest Organic Matter, Organic Carbon, N and P content were observed at soils which were irrigated by fresh water. This indicated that need for give attention for management of soil besides achieving Soybean yield production when saline water is used for irrigation
Published Date: 2021-12-22; Received Date: 2021-12-02
