Review of the effect of sprinkler-irrigation with brackish water on crops

A review of sprinkler-irrigation with brackish water effects on crops showed that both soil salt and sprinkler-irrigated brackish water salt affected crop growth and productivity. Salt absorption rate by plant leaf was linear functionally related with water salt concentration and irrigation duration. In order to reduce sprinkler-irrigated water contents of magnesium, chlorine and sodium, it was critical to monitor electrical conductivity and ion composition of source waters. Generally, increasing irrigation frequency led to a greater increase in salt absorption and plant damage than increasing irrigation duration. Sprinkler-irrigation with fresh water following sprinkler-irrigation with brackish water reduced leaf salt uptake. Sprinkler-irrigated brackish water limited not only biomass and cumulative water consumption of mature plants, but also reduced crop yield. However, crop yield was not significantly related with leaf sap ion concentration. It was suggested that future studies focused on five main research tasks. The first was the study of salt tolerance of crops under sprinkler-irrigation of brackish waters with aim of establishing a standard evaluation system. The second was breeding salt-resistant crop varieties to sprinkler-irrigation with brackish waters which could be especially useful in breeding salt-tolerant grass, turf-grass restoration, urban greening and saline soil amendments. The next suggested focus was developing adaptable irrigation schedules for sprinkler-irrigation with brackish water. It was also important to study the leaching of salt from leaves and soils under sprinkler-irrigation with brackish water condition. The next point was analyzing, in time and space, long/short-term impacts of sprinkler-irrigation with brackish water on the crops. The last point was to study the effects of sprinkler-irrigation with brackish water on the accumulation and distribution of soil salts.