Effect of different cultural methods on chemical properties of saline water

Abstract

The increased water scarcity made the people dependent the poor quality saline water largely for agriculture and other uses. There are numerous techniques have been employed to remediate them yet they are incomplete as many of them failed to satisfy the eco-friendly and cost effective. It is aimed to develop eco-friendly techniques for amelioration of saline water chemical properties at source point to fit it more agriculture use. In this regard, saline waters 2.0, 4.0, 6.0 and 8.0 dS m-1 were treated with indigenous materials viz. Amla stem powder, Muringa seed powder, Tattamparai Seeds powder, dried lemon fruit powder and coconut shell biochar @ 4 g L-1 and 6 g L-1 were used for incubation duration of six hours and twelve hours. Results revealed that electrical conductivity, calcium, magnesium, sodium, chloride and sulphate content and their effect size decreased significantly with increase of saline water EC. The six gram materials and six hours incubation were optimized for the significantly a greater effect. As the materials and dose effect varied significantly saline water levels, the Amla wood indigenous materials 6 g L-1 was very effective for all saline waters and the highest effect was 55.3% EC reduction recorded the in the 2 dS m-1 saline water. The ions removal for cultural methods was in the decreasing order; Ca2+ >Mg2+ >Na+ >SO42- >Cl-. Even though it is appeared a promising and the ecological oriented method for amelioration of different kind industrial waste saline water, the availability of such amount and laborious will be a constraint for the practical utility in agriculture.