Dr Nazir , your question is very thought provoking ,since very meagre  work has been done to address salinity tolerance using saline irrigation water in soils of varying textures . And , if you talk of drainage vis-a-vis salt balance under  saline irrigation , it becomes still a very cumbersome job. While talking the salinity tolerance of different crops using saline irrigation , we also need to define the extent of yield reduction , is 25%, 50% or 1005 yield reduction ?. And accordingly , such thresholds are given . We can also define such tolerance in terms of germination of seeds as well. Again , these limits will be quite different  as per crop . For example seed spices ( Cumins , Dill, Fennel, Fenugreek etc) can tolerate much higher EC of saline water ( Up to EC of 12-18 dS/m saline water   and soil EC of  5-7 dS/m) , on the other hand potato or spinach will wilt ( Up to 3-4 dS/m saline  water  and soil EC of 1.0-2.0 dS/m) . Onions can tolerate soil EC upto 4.5dS/m, potato upto 6.2dS/m , while cabbage  only upto 1.80 dS/m , considering the 50% yield reduction  as maximum limit of investigation.    Likewise Valencia yield is reported to  decrease by 8-13% per dS/m increase in salinity of the soil beyond threshold value of 1.4 dS/m. Grape is another perennial fruit crop , which can tolerate soil EC upto 5.5 dS/m (  EC of water as  8-10 dS/m) on a black clay soil  .

Dr. Anoop Kumar, I am highly thankful for elaborating my question further and bringing in the new aspects which need discussion and information sharing. Yes, I agree that germination and early stage tolerance is very important to consider because plants become comparatively more tolerant at later stages. You have presented good examples. I will add that even salt tolerance vary from variety to variety of species. Let us hear from our esteemed colleagues and researchers by their participation and sharing innovative mind provoking ideas. The coming brain storming may help a lot to the research community.  

Very useful question. I have not seen anyone who have reviewed this type of soil salinity literature. If you can spare time, do it for future generations. \or you can collaborate others scientists working in this area for collaboration, i.e. I mean organize book chapter or review paper contents and ask others (like Anoop Kumar Srivastava, Dr. Murtaza of UAF, Dr. Manzoor Qadir, Dr. Anwar-ul-Hassan of UAF,  ·Dr. Javed of UAF, etc. etc.-----) to write on different sections.

Yes, Dr. Abdul Ghafoor, We are deficient of research work on this aspect. Your suggestion for writing a book specifically in this field is highly appreciable. If I found time, I will plan this assignment and request the authors you pointed out + some others specialized in this field. However, you and Dr. Anoop Kumar have to work as editors with me in addition to your own assigned chapters. Let us hear from Dr. Anoop Kumar and other authors interested in this esteemed work. I am thankful for your proposal.

Dr Nazir , it is infact a novel concept to work upon . But , please do an extensive  search to decide the non-overlapping  title and the contributors as well. But , on my part , I am ready. What kind of crops  are you planning to cover. 

Thank you Dr. Anoop Kumar! You suggestions totally accurate and noted very well. This is a huge work before starting this plan. However, I am confident with your, Dr. Abdul Ghafoor and many other authors' help we can do this job. Let us hear more from esteemed researchers of the globe.   

Dear colleagues:

My comment is just to remind that there is an excellent review paper "crop yields as affected by salinity" (Maas and Grattan, 1999):

Maas, E. V. and S. R. Grattan. 1999. Crop yields as affected by salinity. In R. W.

Skaggs and J. van Schilfgaarde (eds) Agricultural Drainage. Agron. Monograph 38. ASA, CSSA, SSA, Madison, WI pp. 55-108,

in which important aspects as nutritional imbalance, edaphic conditions (salt distribution in the soil profile, soil water content, physical condition, fertility and so on), climate and air quality, plant parameters and cultural practices are taken into account.

In my opinion, it is important to consider that some aspects are affected by the others. As an example, salt distribution in the soil profile is affected by water management, climate, soil texture and structure.

Also, someone mentioned "I agree that germination and early stage tolerance is very important to consider because plants become comparatively more tolerant at later stages". Although it is true, some species as corn (Zea mays) tolerate more salinity at early stage than later ones.

Hope it is useful

Regards

M del Pino! Your views and references you cited are highly considerable. These papers are of very fine quality and covers almost all factors as but as single considerations. I also agree that some plants including Zea mays become less tolerant at later stages but very few plants are like that. Here, we are discussing specific conditions for a complete set. We know that literature is available on factors affecting salinity and sodicity effects on crops. However, we are feeling deficiencies for set of packages together. For example, if someone asks he wants to grow wheat that he has an irrigation water of EC 1.7 dS/m with SAR of 29 in a sandy clay loam soil with poor drainage. What yield reduction he can expect? No precisely answer his question.   

Dr Nazir Hussain

I understand there is literature on different aspects of salinity tolerance as indicated by M del Pino Palacios-Díaz  and others but needs to be reorganized and point out the missing links. I will be more than happy to contribute some thing as you will plan. 

Thank you Dr. Raj.

Dr. Nazir Hussain

Very good question. But I do not think much research has been undertaken in this context, but this question will warrant the researchers to plan investigations in this direction.

Dear Dr, let us wait for any response from our learned colleagues.

Successful crop management relies on selecting suitable crops to the type of soil present in that region. Most of crops prefer well drained medium textured soils with optimum physical properties and neutral pH.   Alluvial soils prevails in  river basins and deltas suits  well for cultivation of rice, maize, groundnut, sugarcane, sunflower, cotton etc.   Crops such as cotton, sorghum, millets, pulses, are predominantly grown in black soils which are having workability limitations.  Red soils are mainly suits for many agricultural and horticultural crops.   Laterite soils are well suited for cultivating cashew, coconut, coffee crops; however, these are mainly used as building materials. Desert and mountain soils are lesser extent used for crop cultivation. In Saline and sodic soils are problematic soils where salt causes great menace and crop production can be carried out with suitable management practices. Salt affected soils are the soils that contain considerable amounts of soluble salts and /or sodium on the exchange complex. In saline soils, the problem is high concentration of soluble salts in the rooting zone.   Despite many limitations, the sodic soils, once ameliorated partially, by using gypsum technology, are used successfully for growth sodium- tolerant or semi tolerant crops, such as rice, sugarbeet, wheat, barley etc. 

Very good explanations by Dr. Malhotra.

Dear Dr. Hussain,

Upper permissible limit of EC of water (dS/m) for safe use for irrigation varies with soil texture and its drainage capacity. The upper permissible limits of EC of water for safe use for irrigating semi-tolerant and tolerant crops in soils of different textural classes and drainage capacity have been developed by the Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal, India. The limits are presented below:

(1) Heavy textured soils (more than 30% clay) with moderate drainage: semi-tolerant crops 1.5 dS/m, tolerant crops 2.0 dS/m

(2) Heavy textured soils (20 to 30% clay) with good drainage: semi-tolerant crops 2.0 dS/m, tolerant crops 4.0 dS/m

(3) Medium textured soils (10 to 20% clay) with good drainage: semi-tolerant crops 4.0 dS/m, tolerant crops 6.0 dS/m

(4) Light textured soils (less than 10% clay) with excellent drainage: semi-tolerant crops 6.0 dS/m, tolerant crops 8.0 dS/m

Reference: Bhumbla, D.R. and Abrol, I.P. (1972) Is your water suitable for irrigation? Indian Farming. 22(4): 15-17.

I hope you find this input interesting, relevant and useful.

Thank you Dr. Dalip Kumar for sharing nice information.