Testing of Ristech Material for Management of Brackish Groundwater for Soil Reclamation and Crop Production

The economy of Pakistan is mainly based on agriculture. Freshwater resources however, are depleting to meet the crop water requirements to sustain irrigated agriculture, compelling the farmers to use brackish groundwater. This situation has further aggravated the existing problem of soil salinity/sodicity. In order to control this problem, it is highly desirable to evolve cost effective technologies for safe use of brackish groundwater for agriculture production. A research study was carried out at Qasim Rangers Farm near Mirpurkhas, to test and evaluate the effectiveness of newly advocated Ristech Technology for management of brackish water for soil reclamation and crop production under farmer's field conditions. This technology is at its initial stage and lacks enough scientific literature for its reliability. The treatments tested were: T1-Control, T2- Ristech treatment, T3-Gypsum application (@23 t ha -1 ) and T4- Pressmud (@25 t ha -1 ). The study revealed that ECe was maximum in case of Ristech treatment whereas, it was minimum in T4 with pressmud application. A rising trend in SAR was observed in all treatments. An increase in soil infiltration rate was recorded in all treatments. Tubewell water quality used for irrigation varied over the time. The ECw,TDS and SAR ranged between 3.2 to 6.5, 2048 to 4160 and 2.2 to 10, respectively. On an average, yield of wheat was increased by 84 and 35% in the order of treatments T4- and T3. Average cotton yield was increased by 38 and 37% in the order of treatments T4 and T3. The Ristech material did not increase the yield of wheat and cotton.