Dear Anil - It is an important issue of management of such soils. I request you to refer to the attached paper where you may find some answer  for Vertisols with sub soil sodicity. Question is how to tell farmers to wait for  such a long time  for reclamation of sodic soils.

For Al saturation  in soils of HT climate please refer to the paper uploaded by me for  acid soils earlier. Truly in presence of hydroxy-interlayered vermiculite(HIV)  and kaolinite- HIV minerals in such soils Al saturation may not  be of much problem.

Thank you Dr. Pal sir 

I shall refer the said papers and get back to you

ANIL

Anil,

Not knowing the exact context of the site(s), let me add crop management and use as an option.  Be intentional in the use of salt / sodic-tolerant forage crops with deep rooted habit.  It is very, very difficult to ameliorate, in an practical economic fashion, such situations with soil amendments.  Sodicity is arguably even more challenging.  If changes in cropping need concomitant changes in the mix of agricultural enterprise, e.g. more livestock to utilize the increased produced forage, so be it.  That is a better option than almost hoping against hope that soil amendments will be a panacea.

Perhaps throw into the options increased irrigation water management, so as to assist in minimizing water movement down-profile.  Again, easier said than done in a practical sense!  Not knowing the agronomy involved let me also throw out increased no-till, long straw management ... in an effort to reduce the evapotranspiration at the land surface? 

All the best!

Dear Anil,

In the pampean region Argentina there are many sites with characteristics similar to those you mention. These sites have serious limitations on production. We use these sodic soils with shallow water table with perennial grasses. Normally, these pastures are carefully grazed with cows. These sites should remain with high soil cover to avoid salt and sodium capillary rise and keep the water table away from the surface.

Best regards.

dear sirs,

Thank you for your answers. In Bellary District, Karnataka, India, those soils are economically used for 4 continuous crops of paddy per year on an avarage using Thungabhadra canal water. immediately after harvest transplanting of paddy with adding enough fertilizer good management and pounding of water so far giving very good yields. One day the system may collapse.

anil

Dr.Anilkumar I have not comeacross much published information on subsoil  sodicity and salinity coupled with ill-drained conditions. Are these Vertisols under irrigation in semiarid regions?  In coastal areas  we may have the  problem of subsoil salinity and ill-drained conditions.Do you have some information on extent of area and where such occur?Are these soils under rice and sugarcane crops?

you can add gypsum to the soil as conditioner and use mole drain in sub soil