Abstract
Pakistan is a country in which most of the area falls in arid or semi-arid regions. In arid zone, salinity is a serious and chronic
problem for agriculture. Due to less rainfall we use different irrigation methods. In the recent era, water crisis is a major
problem due to which people are moving towards modern water saving techniques e.g. high efficiency irrigation system (drip
irrigation etc.). So, the present study was conducted in 2012-13 in order to analyze the effects of soil physical degradation by
use of different irrigation techniques. Three different sites were selected; 1- Kota Wala near Sumundri, Faisalabad where drip
irrigation system was installed in 2012, 2- Inter loop site near the Jaranwala, Faisalabad having drip irrigation installed in 2010,
3- Mamo Kangen, Faisalabad where drip irrigation system was installed at 2009 having old plastic mulching. For analyzing
soil physical variations, 108 soil samples were collected at different soil depths (0-90 cm) from all sites. At each site, sample
was collected under the drip and flood irrigation. Then the soil characteristics were checked by three different techniques, a)
irrigation of land by drip system, b) drip irrigation with plastic mulching and c) flood irrigation system. Different soil physical
and chemical parameters were measured including infiltration rate, bulk density, pH, electrical conductivity (EC) and sodium
absorption ratio (SAR). The results showed that the bulk density, EC, pH and SAR increased and infiltration rate decreased
continuously under the drip irrigation technique. It was concluded that with proper management, plastic mulching was found
to be a good practice to control the soil physical and chemical degradation
