Evaluation of Agricultural Crops for Saline-Sodicity Tolerance Indices in Calcareous Saline-Sodic Soils Pushparaj Pramila*, Thiyagarajan Chitdeshwari Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore-641 003, Tamil Nadu, India *email: chithukesh@gmail.com
Online published on 15 December, 2016. Abstract Saline-sodicity is the critical factor has significant influenceon the plant growth and productivity in arid and semi arid soils. Hence identifying plants having considerable tolerance to soil saline-sodicity plays a vital role in achieving profitable yields. Agreen house experiment was conducted with eighteen agricultural crops in soils having varied intensity of salinesodicity to screen the crop plants having better tolerance to various soil saline sodicity. The stress tolerance parameters were calculated by using the dry matter of crops grown in soils having both high salt/Na+ concentration which was compared with plants grown under non saline-sodic soil. Out of the eighteen crops grown in calcareous saline-sodic soils having an electrical conductivity of 2–4, 4–6, 6–8 and 8–16 dSm−1, Zea mays and Eleusine coracana were found to have better tolerance to saline sodicity with higher stress tolerant indices. The small millets, viz., Panicum miliaceum and Setaria italica were susceptible to saline sodicity stress which was evident from the lesser stress tolerant indices. Hence Zea mays and Eleusine coracana can be recommended as phytoremediation crops to reclaim calcareous salinesodic soils. Out of the various stress indices computed, MP, GMP and STI better explains the tolerance to saline-sodicity than the TOL. Top Keywords Dry biomass, stress tolerance indices TOL, STI, MP, GMP and efficient plants. Top |