Abstract
We have compared growth performance of seven rice and six wheat salt tolerant varieties at different
salinity/sodicity levels in pots. Sandy clay loam soil was used to achieve various EC:SAR ratios, i.e. 3.1 :8.6 (T
1
),
3.9:14.3 (T2), 6.4:15.4 (T3), 7.6:27.8 (T4), 10.3:25.6 (T5) and 11.9:47.4 (T6
). Seven rice and six wheat varieties
were grown and irrigated with canal water. Among the tested rice varieties, SSRI-8 gave maximum productive
tillers and paddy yield. Among the tested wheat varieties, SR1-32 gave maximum plant height, productive tillers
and grain and straw yields. The high EC:SAR ratios proved more hazardous for rice than that of wheat.
Irrespective of the varieties tested, the highest levels of EC and SAR (T5
and T6
) caused significant reduction in
paddy yield while at the lowest levels of EC and SAR (T1 and T2
) paddy yields were not affected significantly
when compared with control. But in case of wheat crop, all the levels, i.e. lowest (T1
and T2
), medium (T
3
and T
4
),
and highest (T5 and T6) of EC and SAR tested, affected wheat yield adversely with significant differences among
EC:SAR ratios as compared to control. For both the crops, there were non-significant differences in yield for both
the tested ratios (i.e. 0.50 and 0.25) at all the levels of EC and SAR. Decrease in ECe
and SAR after wheat
harvest with treatments was in the decreasing order of T6 followed by T5, T4, T3, T2 and T1.
Keywords: Evaluation; tolerance; cultivars; salinity; sodicity
