saline-ali{ali soils in india

229 Pages·2013·5.36 MB·English

SALINE-ALI{ALI SOILS
IN INDIA
ICAR
INDIAN COUNCIL OF AGlUCULTUItAL RESEARCH
NEW DELHI
1. C. A. R. TECHNICAL BULL. (AGRIC. SERIES) NO. 15
SALINE-ALKALI SOILS
IN INDIA
R. R. AGARWAL M. SC, PH D.
D!rector' Of Agricultu.re, U.P.,
Lucknow
and
R. N. GUPTA M Sc, PH D .•
Prqfrs.wr of Sad COflserllUiwn,
Governmwt Agricultural Coliegt,
Kaflpur
lCAR
INDIAN COUNCIL OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH
NEW Dj>LHI
FIRST PUBLISHED JANUARY, 1968
Chre[ Ed"or ; C. G. RAGHAVA KURUP
Technical Editor: P. KACHROO
Assistant Editor: R. R. LOKESHWAR
T'cchmcaJ ,issutant " M. S. MEHDl
Pnnted lD Indu'l by S. R. Malhotra at the Swan PreS's. of L<Jnore, 3 Chamellan Road
Delhi·6, and published by T. S Pruth1, Under-Secretary, tor the
In<han Council of Agncultural Reseilrch, New Delhl-l
PREFACE
The I,ndian Council of Agncultural Resealch organi{ed a well
planned Seminar on the Recent Advances in Agronomy and Sot!
Science at SImla in June U)5!l The programme Included a subject
on saline and alkah .<,(_ils. WhIle discussmg many aspects of thIs
subject, It was felt that the eXisting research Information on these
so11s 111 the country is volurninou~ but the same has not been brought
togdher apd publu,Hed. The CouncIl deSIred that we collect thIs
informatIOn from the available sources and write a bulletm on the
subject. The purpose \Vas to make avallaLlc:: the Important infonna
tIOn on the research work done in India on all phases 'of salme-alkalI
SOlIs. From the unlimited matenal within the framewOIk of the
subject, we had to make ollr own selectIOn. Fortuna~ely the !;,cope of
tile treatment was limned to IndIan COllciItions. Foreign 'lIterature
has, therefore, been avoided except the more recent ones where the
work is such.1.s to have dIrect be.:1ring either to condItions prevailing
in India or to Investigations that Were started In this country as a
sequel then·:of.
An attempt has been made to prOVIde a logical arrangement of
the tOPICS, starting WIth the soIl, then successively dealing with
aspects connected wi th soil sahmty, and ending with techtliques of
IeclamatIOn and management. The introductory Chapter is a
historical outline of the subject. Chapter.3 defines broadly the
problems Involved. Chapter 3 deals 1ll a general way with the
genetic factors of the formatIOn of SOlIs and their pedo1ogy. Pre
valent dlagno!:>tic technIque" and their practIcal adaptatIons have
been outlmed in Chapter 4. ThIS Chapter is then followed by another
on the nature and properties of sahne .. alkah sods in the different
tracts of India. It was origmally intended to gIve separate treat
ments to orgamc matter, microblOlogy, nU[rlen( status and collOIdal
properties of saline-alkali soils; but owing to the pauCity of material,
the.y were all incorporated in the same Chapter. Hanng described
the sOlIs and their formation, subsequent chapters are devoted to the
reclamatIOn and management of salme-alkalt soIls. The last two
chapters are Important supplements to the work on salme-alkali s(1l1s,
VIZ., plant growth on such soils and quahty of irrigatIon waterS both
J
of whIch have grca t bearIng on the entire problem connected WIth
the development and managenlent of soils affected WIth salInity.
The salient features of the achievements made so far In tbe
subject have been arranged In a chronological order and deficiencies
iv
or gaps in knowledge indicated. ,These gIve an idea of OUT future
lines of work on this problem. One of the primary objectives of this
bulletin is to provide a cntical review of the up-te-date research
informatIon on the subject of saline-alkalI soils for the use of research
workers and thme engaged in practical management of such soils.
It is hoped, that thIs objective has heen achieved to a great measure.
The Indian Council of Agncultural Research generously pb.ced
at our disposal the annual reports of the vanous schemes on sahne
alkali soils which were conducted under their auspices. \Ve acknow
ledge with gratitude the he1p received from workers In India for
providing research matenal, witllOut which we could not have pre~
pared this bulletin. ParUcular mendon may be made to the aulho
nties of the [ndlan Agncultu_ral Research Institute, New Delhi, for
affordmg facilities to consult their well~eqUlpped library, to the
Government of l\laharashtra for maktng availduJe some of [heIr old
technical buiJetins on land dramage, and to Dr R. C. Hoon Jor
supplymg the two te(.hnic,al publicatIons on land reclamatIOn In the
Punjab.
R. R. AGARWAL
R. N. GUPTA
CONTENTS
Preface iii
I. Introduction 1
II Nomenclature and geographic distribution 6
III. Origin, formation and classIfication 12
IV. Diagnostlc techniques 30
V. Nature and propertIes it
...
,
VI. Reclamation 100
VII. 1\fanagement of salineaalkali soils ·156
VIII. Plant growth on saline-alkali soils 161
IX. Quahty of irrigation waters 177
References 197
AppendIx 214
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A petitIOn in 18"76 by Robarts, an European planter In the Aligarh
district of Uttar Pradesh, to thf' Board of Revenue for rehef on tHe
ground that his land had detenorated fast due to the appearance of
saline efflorescence as a result of the introduction of canal irngatio~
led to the formation of the historical Indian Reh ComrlJittee in 1877,
wuh the objective of investigating mto the causes of the detelioration
of land by reh1 In Ahgarh district in Uttar Pradesh The rerOll of
the Reh Comml1tee appeflred III 1886 which focussed attentIon on
many Important pomts related to canal irdgauon, dra.inage and
spread of alkali in the soIl. The problem of salme alkalt soils I cceive-d
serious sCIentific consideratwn in India In 1886, when J' 'V. \"1Ison,
an Engineet wa~ deputed by the Government to U.S A to dl"icUSS
w'ith E.'V. Hdgard, one uf the piuneenug- ~(Jd SCIentr~lS uf AIIlt'flca.
the irrigatIOn, drainage and 'alkalI problems in thell relatIOn to
IndIan agrIcultural practices, "'llson was greatly impressed with the
similarity of the problems In India :md the U.S.A. The Voelcker
Report in 1808 gave a resume of the informatIOn then avallabJc m
Ind)a on thIs subject and for the firs! time indicated emphatically the
~ecesslty for scientific SOlI study to tackle the problem of salme-alkali
SOlIs 1n thIS• . rountry. Systema' tI~ Ic study on these sOJls was started
be
by J,\V~ Le-ather, Imperial Agricultural Chemist, who d'e.serves to
called the first scientific worker on soil salinity in thIS country. He
(1'893, 18~7, 1902,' 1914) made a thorough sY'tematic and scientIfic
multipronged attack on the alkah problem. He studied' the possIble
causes of salil1lzatlOll and concluded that canal i'fJigation could no~
possibly be lc:;ponslble fo~ the formation of alkah, as such patch~i
wele numero, us and similar In chalacter both in th,e canal arid nan-
canal irngated tracts. Yet, there could be posslble extension of reh
due to waterloggm~ on the l~troductlOn of canal irngation. H~
, "
consequently surveyed and mapped the usar2 patches at many locationj
of
~ri the districts of Etah and r-..f~unpurj, in'the vicimty the Lower
Canges Canai, and fixed: b~nch marks for possIble future referen~e .
..Pt .i.. e discoverf'd' tIhaIt w en waters wt"re con," siderabl,y sahner a~ s compaIr e,d
, ,J' ' I I' I"
to' canal waters whkh were the purc~t form of lrrigation wat( r avail"
<l;ble. and fixed the safe l:imlts o~ the quality of irng~tion wate?,
)) J, Reh,in \n4lan ,ler,mit).o\ogy ,mean,s 'saY,cffi9[es;cu)._~e·. ,
,,' '" "I • -
2 USaT means sallOe-atkal1 soil.
2
contammg different soluble cations. Leather always laid emphasis
on exauuning the sOlI up to considerable depth and in this way
extensively characterized the usar soIls ort the basis of theIr soluble
anionic composition and extremely low permeability. He determined
the relative salt tolerance of crop plants with respect to dIfferent
soluble anions. "And finally he evolved a few methods for rec1amation
of usar soih . ...-Although, Leather rc'c.ogmzed as early as 1897, that
calcium salts coagulated usar soils and made them permeable he La 1-
culatt:d the gypsum requIrements of these soils as sImply [he quantIty
whIch was equivalent to soluble carbonates presen~in "them. The
formation, characterization and reclamation of salincaalkali soils in
fact Iemained obscure until the implications of the principles of base
exchange were fuUl' known.
This awareness to the problem of soil salinity was extending
throughout IndIa with the spread of irrigated farmmg since land was
deterioratmg due to canal irngatIOn. In the Deccan tract. the Nua
Valley Irngation Canal was opened in 1884 to irngate for the first
time on a large scale the deep black cottOIi suil area and soon after the
land began to be affected by salt and waterlogging, In 1880, Dr.
Ozanne, the then DIrector of Agllculturc, was dIrected to make a
surveyor the problems. He reponed that the damage was due to
seepage and percolation from canals In 1893, Leather VIsited the tract
and sampled some of the aftected SOIls. The problem m fact became
so serious that in 1903 the Government of Bombay appomted a Com
mittee to consider the meaSures to be adopted to check the spread of
damage. The Committee recommended that all nalas (natural drain
age Imes) should be opened WIthout delay, salt-affected lands be sur
veyed and reclamation tflals carried out. Mann and Tamhane (l9lu)
e!'.tirnated that 6-, per cent of the area was bemg damaged annually,
and even those lands on whlr:h sugal cane was being taken had
accumulated excessive salts, whose adverse effect was be-ing suppressed
by the large amounts of manure and irrIgation water bemg used.
Drainage tria}" laid out remamed unsucce':isful.
In the decade that followed the begmmng of \Vorld War I little
progress was made In research on salinf'·aJkah soils m IndJa, ill .spite
of rapid advances made in other countnes) notably III Russia and the
U.S.A. It was durmg thiS penod that Gedrolz presented his dasslcal
researcl)es In a series of papers on the collOIdal properties of solls In
relauon to exchangeable catIons p~rticularly sodIum and explamed
on thIS basis the geneSIS of sal me sods and the process of alkalizatIOn.
The idea8 of Gedroiz were successfully apphed to Amtflcan soils by
Kelley, Joffe, McGeorge and others in understandIng the genetIC
relationships of white and black alkalI and the basI: prmCIples involved
3
in sound reclamation practices. In fact, once the origin and devclop~
ment of saline and alkali soils were known on redologic pnnClples, sub.
sequen t development of the subject related to scientific methods of
reclama tion of these soils.
Incidentally, the rapid sllcceRsion of head, works and canals that
were opened during thIS period and vast areas of new lands brought
under Irrigation largely masked the problem of salt-affected lands,
although the latter was also assuming large proportions. It was only
In 19~5 that the problem of waterl~gging was taken up iti right earnest
in the Punjab when the Waterlogging Enquiry Committee was institut
ed followed by the Waterlogging Board. The Chakanwali ReclamatlOn
Farm was, 'also open~d with the simultaneous establi~hment of the
Punjab Irrigation Research InHliute at Lahore to illvestigate all the
problems connected With irrigation, drainage and salInity A simIlar
field station, the Baramati Expenmental Salt Area was established in
the,Deccan black cotton tract, almost about the same time, with
similar obJectives. /
I
The ensuing decade and a half was a period of fruitful research
I
in India on the subject of saline· alkali soils. Puri and associates in
the undIv1ded Punjab made many contnbutions to the study of alkali
sOlis, their characterizatIOn, diagnosis and reclamation based upon
GedrOlz theat y of base exchange and correlated ~aline and alkali soil
conditions wah crop response. ~lany leachmg, dramage and 1 eclama
tion tflals were carried out at the Chakanwali Reclamation Farm and
effectIve methods suited to the Punjab soils were developed. Water
rattng, the problems of in 19atlOn and nse of water-table were also
SImultaneously studied at length to check the deterioration of land
agamst indiscriminate use of water. Effective dramage and improve. .
ment lechmques were developed by Inglis and Gokhale (1928) In the
Deccan for the black·cotton soil alea, where altogether different
geomorphology eXIsted. Durmg the thirties, Talatl successfully under. .
took the claSSification and reclamation of salt-damaged lands in Bara
matt and when the Padegaon Sugarcane Research Station was estab
lished, Basu and Tagan:: took up these: studIes from genetic point of
vIew lfl relatlOn to the process of alkalizatIOn and amelioratIOn w1th
partIcular reference to cane cultIvatIOn. In Uttar Pradesh, during
this period a number of reclaiming agents, partIcularly molasses and
pressmud, were tried by Dhar for the amellOration and reclamation of
salme-alkah soils. An Usar Land Reclamation CommIttee was con
sututed by the State Government to adVise on all matters telated to
the charactenzatlOn, reclamation and prevention of spread of usar
lands. The CommIttee went mto the problem in great detail and
suggested setling up of a \Vaste Land ReclamatIon Board to deal with
4
add,problems of, waste lands. The outbreak of World War II held up
these plans and once agam gave a seteback to the progress in research
on ,this subject~
The 15 years of post-mdependence penod saw a great progress m
ITcsearch on saline-alkalI :'lods in IndIa. By now the pw.neering work
d·one at the U.S. Salimty Laboratory on soli-plant-water relationship in
salme soIls wa~s'known and these hnes of Investigations were critIcally
put to test,l:~i Agarwal and his assmcates In the diagnosis and charac
tenzatIon of salme-alkalI solIs 'Of the Indo-GangetIc al1uvlUffi A signI
ficant contnbutlOll IS the sahhlty-alkali selle develpped by these
workers to evaluate salin~-alkah sOlis for crop response. ReconnaIs
sance survey; partIcularly in Uttar Pradesh and Bhakra Nangal P)oJect
of East Punjab, has revealed the occurrence 'of large blocks ofsalmc·
alkali, soils whIch can be profitably exploited for agrIcultural purposes'.
FrantIc efforts have been made towards the development of suitable
ameliorative and tec1amatian measures whIch can make large areas
of sahncaalkali soils"" produce crops velY qUIckly. A number '6f
6Chemes have been imtiated by the Indian CouncIl of Agricultural
Research,both on fundamental and applied aspects of the salinity,
problem in 'Indm.f' , ,
Judgmg from the record it appears that conSIderable research
\Vork bas been done'on the subject of salineJalkah soils III IndIa dur
ing the last 60 ,,?ears. t-Although, the achlevements In c.ertam fields are
quite <-om'mendable in some' states, knowledge on the subject contInues
t'O be far from complete and'veryr 'much uncoordll1ated' so' that full
benefit of the informatIOn achIeved cannbt be utIlIzed, Complete
knowledge of the 'varions phY~Ical, mechamcaI anti phystco-chemical
f,J['JD..r_~ _a{ff'['ring piiruf'1JlarJ;V tl{~ mOIsture relatIonsmp of salrnf'-alkaJi
sbils, culturai1and agronomic p'r'actices ameliorating these 'sOIls, hydro.l.
logicar studies ir1duding drainage Improvement and methods of lower.
ing the water··table-factdrs which are of paramount Importan~e In
salimty-atkah d:int'rol_jis yet hot avallabile. Besides there ar~ numera'
otis other problems whlch await solutIOn, 'Even' today there' IS no·
where in any of die problem states after partition, a coord mated
project on research coverIng the study of all [he' factols of5ahnizatlOTI
and soil reclamation ThIs has been due to insufficient, ill-cool'dinat·
ed and h~sitant 'apptoach 10 the' problem'.
, India' has veil' large anti 'ambltious plans for the development of,
irrigation and power, which a're an'eSsential condition for dh'ersifymw
agriculture and increasing' crop productlOrC' 'On the baSIS of river·
water resources of th~"country. It was 'tomputed (Planning COmmI'lI. I
sion,1960) 'that up to 1951 abo'ut 76 milhon acre feet or 17 per cent'
oPfthe ·tiset:lblt:: Water flow hacttbeen utIlized for agu-ic-ulture_ By -th!IJ<'
> D