Cultivation of Onion Under Fertigation Using Saline Water in the Semi-Arid Region of Haryana in India

The increasing scarcity of freshwater resources has compelled Indian farmers to use poor-quality water for agricultural production to meet the growing and diverse food demands. This situation is expected to become even more critical in the future. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to investigate the effect of fertigation on growth and yield of onion irrigated with saline water of 0.3, 2.5 and 5.0 dS m-1 electrical conductivity. The study was carried out in protected micro-plots having a surface drip irrigation system, at Research Farm, Department of Soil Science, CCSHAU Hisar, Haryana. The experiment was laid out in split plot design with three irrigation water levels in drip, i.e. canal water (ECiw: 0.3 dS m-1) and saline water with EC of 2.5 dS m-1 and 5.0 dS m-1 as main factor and in sub factor three levels of nitrogen were taken i.e. 75% RDN, 100% RDN and 125% RDN. The results revealed that the growth and yield of onion decreases with increase in salinity from 0.3 to 5.0 dS m-1. Onion yield improved significantly with increase in nitrogen dose from 75 to 125 % RDN and the effect is more pronounced at higher salinity level. These results could help in convincing onion growers to adopt fertigation with higher N dose (125% RDN) for successful utilization of saline water in onion crop.