Soil Salinity Management in Iraq Using Indigenous Soil Management Techniques – Analysis of Biophysical and Socioeconomic Data.

Experiences from diverse agro-ecologies suggest that soil management techniques can have strong effects in ameliorating soil salinity, and thereby improving plant growth. A recent survey showed that a range of soil treatments, used by leading farmers in Iraq, that can also decrease soil salinity include: deep plowing to break down the hard pan, improve infiltration of water and leach salt; rotating crops between wheat and legumes; incorporating crop residues into the soil; mulching soil surface for wheat straw; and digging local open drains. Cost-benefit analysis of these treatments for 2011 growing season showed that yield and profit increased by 44% and 125% respectively. The average reduction in salinity in the treated plots was significant (P=0.032), whereas there was no significant reduction in the control plots (P>0.05) at the harvest. For this dataset, there were no significant differences in the salinity levels of the two subplots at planting, but after the harvest the differences were found significant (P=0.018). These decreases in salinity were associated with 0.8–3.4 t/ha increase in yield of wheat. A total of 35 different observations of soil treatments showed signs of reduction in salinity. Keeping only the fields which received a treatment, student t-test showed significant (P<0.001) reduction in the salinity level after the application of the treatment. Based on the information where the yields were recorded, the correlation between yield and salinity was found negative and significant (P=0.046). However, it was not significantly correlated with EC_e status before planting, which implies absence of any systematic patterns at the baseline plots. Analysis of socioeconomic survey data of the farmers suggested that better standards of living is highly associated with level of education (P=0.019) and the number of working family members (P=0.039) and not with size of farm, other sources of income, access to market, etc.