Sustainable groundwater – a need of sustainable agriculture

Globally, irrigated agriculture is the largest extractor and the most frequent consumer of groundwater resources, withimportant groundwater-dependent and largely spread agro-economies. quality of irrigation water is one of the key factorswhich have either direct or indirect impact on plant growth, soil and water management practices and plant yields. this workaims at highlighting the importance of periodic assessment of groundwater quality for irrigation, impact of different chemicalparameters on plant yield and agriculture and water management practices needed in adverse irrigation water conditions.this study was conducted in semi-arid area where salinity and alkalinity are considered the main threats to the sustainableirrigation agriculture. thirty representative samples were collected for chemical analyses from various sources ofgroundwater, within an area of 36 km², lying in the north-east of the lakki marwat district pakistan. the standard valuessuggested by wapda, fao and usda handbook 60 were used as benchmark for comparison. the electrical conductivity andph values together classify groundwater as saline-alkaline. it is revealed that none of the water samples has an adverseimpact on the yield of barley, sorghum and wheat while 7% and 17% of this water respectively reduce the yield of corn andonion by 50%. besides, 7% of this water reduces the yield of alfalfa by 25%. this work recommends management practicessuch as deep ploughing, provision of adequate drainage and crop rotation for improving the use of such water.