Best irrigation scheduling way with saline water and desalinated water: Field experiments

In Tunisia, only 30% of mobilized water resources have salinity less than 2.34 dS/m. The objective of this work was to determine the best irrigation scheduling way when saline and desalinated waters are used. Different irrigation doses of freshwater and saline water are used: T80-20, T50-50 and T1d-1d. 80, 20 and 50 correspond to the percentages of irrigation water supplied in a day. For 1d-1d, this corresponds to irrigation one day with saline water and then the next day with desalinated water. Their effect on crops growth and on soil salinity was measured for three different saline waters (1.56, 4.68 and 7.81 dS/m). For irrigation with water salinity of 1.56 dS/m, the treatments T50-50 gives the better yield. For the 4.68 and 7.81 dS/m, a reduction in height was observed for all treatments. Also, for soil salinity at the end of the lettuce crop cycle, T50-50 is the best treatment that has given the best results at all levels.