Abstract

Soil salinity is the major factor that limits agricultural productivity in arid and semi-arid regions. The use of improved farm management practices in such areas is becoming a highly concerning issue to sustain agricultural productivity. This study, therefore, was conducted to evaluate the effect of on-farm water management practices and irrigation water sources on soil quality. The experiment was conducted on 16 farmer's fields in the area for two consecutive years. Soil and water sampling were done at the beginning and end of each growing season. Both samples were analyzed for selected parameters following standard laboratory procedures. A general linear model of two ways analysis of variance was used to evaluate the variations among treatments. Results indicated that about 64.3% of studied soil properties are showed significant variation at P<5% across treatments. This implies that management practice and sources of irrigation water have an impact on soil productivity. Salinity and alkalinity values showed an increasing trend over time and higher values for both parameters were observed in groundwater irrigated fields. This suggested that irrigation water sources have also pronounced effects on soil quality. The higher value for soil fertility indicators such as organic carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorous was also observed under managed fields. This also suggests management practices positively influenced soil productivity.  Therefore, paying attention to management practices and water quality is very important to maintain soil productivity.

Key words: Agriculture, ANOVA, irrigation management, soil salinity, water quality.