Irrigation Engineering

Reclamation of Saline and Alkali Soils

Salinity
Salinity is a measure of the soluble salts in soil. Salinity is measured in a water-extract of the soil.
Saline soils pose a problem for plants. The more saline the soil, the more difficult it is for plants
to absorb and extract water from the soil.
Plants can concentrate solutes in their roots to increase water absorption from the soil (via
osmosis), but plants cannot compete for water with highly saline soils.

Saline Soils
Soils may be saline because of the presence of salts naturally occurring in the soil’s parent material
(geologic material out of which the soil formed). They may be saline because of irrigation/watering
with high-salt water, including water that has been run through a water softener.
Frequent but short irrigation events can lead to accumulation of salts, as the water never percolates
below the root zone, carrying excess salts with it.
Excessive fertilizer application or application of salt-containing organic materials (such as manure
and sludges) can create saline soils. Run-off from roads and sidewalks may contain de-icing
materials that contribute salts to the soil.
The most common methods used for saline soil are.
1. Eradication
2. Conversion
3. Other Methods (Salt Precipitation Theory).

1. Method Eradication:
The most common methods generally used to saline soils are:

 Under drainage and

 Leaching or flushing
A combination of the two, flooding after tile drains is the most effective. Leaching method is
very much effective in ameliorating saline soil whose soluble salts are largely neutral and high
in Ca2+ and Mg2+ and very little exchangeable Na+. Leaching saline-alkali or sodic soils with
water high in soluble salt but low in exchangeable Na+ may be effective.

Leaching Requirement (LR):

The leaching requirement may be defined as the fraction of the irrigation water that must be
leached through the root zone to control soil salinity at any specified level. The leaching

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requirement (LR) is simply the ratio of the equivalent depth of the drainage water to the depth of
irrigation water and may be expressed as a fraction or as per cent.

Under the assumed conditions (uniform aerial application of irrigation water, no rainfall, no
removal of salt in the harvested crop and no precipitation of soluble constituents in the soil), this
ratio is equal to the inverse ratio of the corresponding electrical conductivities as follows:

LR = Ddw × 100/Diw = ECiw × 100/ECdw

where LR = Leaching requirement expressed in percentage

Ddw = Depth of drainage water in inches

DiW = Depth of irrigation water in inches
ECiw = Electrical conductivity of the irrigation water in dSm-1
ECdw = Electrical conductivity of the drainage water in dSm-1
In applying this equation, a value is usually assumed for ECdw (8 dSm-1 for most of the field crops)
to represent the maximum soil salinity that can be tolerated. For irrigation waters with
conductivities of 1, 2 and 3 dSm-1 respectively, the leaching requirement will be 13, 25 and 38 per
cent (taking the value of ECdWas 8 dSm-1). Leaching requirement as related to crop salt tolerance
is shown.

2. Conversion Method:
In this conversion method different chemical amendments are used for changing part of the caustic
alkali carbonates into sulphates and ultimately lost by leaching. AH chemical amendments are not
suitable for all soil conditions.

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The amendments suitable for different soil conditions are indicated below:

Chemical reactions involving reclamation of salt affected soils:

(i) Gypsum (CaSO4.2H2O):

When gypsum is applied to ameliorate salt affected soils, the following reaction will take place
and loss of exchangeable sodium (Na+) occurs and calcium will take the place of sodium on the
exchange complex. Gypsum reacts with both Na2CO3 and the adsorbed sodium as follows:

(ii) Sulphur:
When sulphur is applied to salt affected soils (alkali and saline alkali) the following reaction takes
place.

On calcareous alkali soil

The production of H2SO4 is common for all soils as mentioned above.

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(iii) Iron Pyrite (FeS2):

When iron pyrite is applied to sodic soils, the following reaction takes place:

(iv) Iron Sulphate (FeSO4):

When iron sulphate is applied to the soil, the following chemical reaction will occur.

(v) Lime Sulphur (CaS5):

When lime sulphur is applied to soils, the following reaction takes place:

CaS5 + 2 + 4H2ODCaSO4 + H2SO4.

If the soil is calcareous then the production of gypsum will take place from H2SO4 as follow:

If the soil is non-calcareous then the following reaction will take place.

Control:
The retardation of evaporation is an important feature of the control of salty soils. This will not
only save moisture but will also retard the upward translocation of soluble salts into the root zone.
Salt free irrigation water should be used. The use of salt resistant crops is another important feature
of the successful management of saline and alkali soils.

3. Other Methods (Salt Precipitation Theory):

Besides these, recently salt precipitation theory is employed satisfactorily for the reclamation of
sodic soils. The elimination of salts and exchangeable sodium from soils by leaching is presently

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practising, but the leached salts have been washed into groundwater’s or streams, making those
waters saltier and again that too much salty water is used for irrigation purpose.

Due to such use the soils are further subjected to salt problems. With this view, a new concept in
managing salty soils has been developed and that is known as precipitation of salts.

This idea suggests that instead of leaching salts completely away, they can be leached to only 0.9-
1.8 m deep (3-6 ft.) where much of the salt would form slightly soluble gypsum (CaSO4.2H2O) or
carbonates (CaCO3, MgCO3) during dry periods and not react any longer as soluble salts.
The amount of salt precipitating out will vary with the cation and anion composition of those salts.
The ions precipitating will be mostly those of calcium, magnesium, carbonate, bicarbonate and
sulphate. Estimates are that 30 per cent of the total salts may eventually precipitate.

The rest two-third of salts cause very little effect on the yields of corn and tomatoes. The
management technique is simply to apply less water, but to do it more carefully to ensure uniform
depth of wetting.

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