USE OF BRACKISH WATER FOR THE RECLAMATION OF DENSE SALINE-SODIC SOILS BY AUGER HOLE TECHNOLOGY AND ECONOMIC GROWTH OF WHEAT CROP

Currently, availability of good-quality water is falling short of the crop requirement, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions of pakistan. a field experiment was conducted on dense saline-sodic soils at tehsil toba tek singh at three sites. the initial ece, sar and phs of the soils ranged from 9.86 to 25.30 ds m^-1, 17.1 to 46.7 and 7.57 to 7.98, respectively at 0-15 cm depth. the treatments were: t1= tube well water (tw) alone, t2= tw–canal water (cw), t3= tw–cw + one auger hole per 30 m² refilled with gypsum and rice husk, t4= tw–cw + one auger hole per 60 m² refilled with gypsum and rice husk. overall t3 was best in decreasing ece, sar and phs at all three sites. maximum decrease (%) in ece, sar and phs was 70.23 (t3) at site 1, 69.67 (t4) at site 2, and 4.64 (t1) at site 1, respectively at 0-15 cm depth. maximum wheat grain yield (4180, 3805 and 4259 kg ha^-1 at sites 1, 2 and 3, respectively) were recorded with t3. maximum benefit cost ratio was 3.47, 3.38 and 2.95 with tw–cw + one auger hole per 30 m² refilled with gypsum and rice husk (1:1 ratio by volume) at sites 3, 1 and 2, respectively.