Impact of irrigation on soil properties in Purna valley of Vidarbha region of Maharashtra

Abstract

To study the impact of irrigation on soil properties in Purna valley of Vidarbha region of Maharashtra an experiment was conducted during 2014-2015 at Department of Science and Agril. Chemistry Dr. PDKV, Akola. The water samples from ten bore wells were collected in the month of October 2014 and the soil samples were taken during and after irrigation. The bore well water samples were found to be in high salinity and low sodicity class (S1C3). Amongst the cations, sodium was dominant cation which was above permissible limit followed by calcium, magnesium and potassium, anions in irrigation water with respect to bicarbonate it was dominant anion followed by chloride and sulphate. The sodium adsorption ratio was within the permissible limit and Mg: Ca ratio of water falls in acceptable range, in most of the samples whereas the adjusted sodium adsorption ratio was higher than the recommended guidelines.The irrigation water affects the physical and chemical properties of soil to a considerable extent where hydraulic conductivity was decreased and bulk density showed increasing trend after irrigation, whereas particle density and porosity of soil was decreased after irrigation. The pHs varied from 8.65 to 8.94 before irrigation and 8.76 to 8.96 after irrigation whereas ECe 1.87 to 2.28 dSm-1 before irrigation and 1.95 to 2.30 dSm-1 after irrigation while among the cations the concentration of sodium, calcium, magnesium and potassium was increased over the initial value and sodium was the dominant cation found in soil. Bicarbonate is dominated among the anions in between 7.1 to 8.5 before irrigation and 7.9 to 8.9 meL-1 before irrigation and 7.5 to 8.9 meL-1 after irrigation followed by chloride and sulphate.