Assessment of the Change in Soil Properties and Aggregates Formation of Freshly Restored Texturally Different Marginally Salt-Affected Soils Under Various Soil Amelioration Strategies

Climate change and salt-affected soils detrimentally affect crop production in arid regions. Reclaiming these soils for crops and carbon sequestration can mitigate climate change and enhance food security. A laboratory-scale experiment was conducted on a wheat-maize crop rotation system for three consecutive years to check the effectiveness of organic amendments in reclaiming marginally salt-affected soils, improving soil health, sequestering carbon, and improving food grain production. This study included five treatments namely control (T1), gypsum alone at 100% gypsum requirements (G100), and its combinations with different organic amendments and 50% gypsum requirements (farm manure (FYM+G50), poultry manure (PM+G50), and green manure (GM+G50)) were used. Results indicated that sandy clay loam textured soil showed highest potential for its properties improvement after 45 days, i.e., EC decreased up to 3.9 dS m-1, pH 7.9 and, SOC increase up to 0.25%. After the fallow period, three consecutive years of crop production study indicated up to 39 and 70% increase in wheat and maize yields, respectively, compared to inorganic fertilizer alone. Maximum soil aggregation was noted in treatment with gypsum and farmyard manure application in loam soils (50%). The maximum soil organic carbon accumulation over the whole experiment was recorded in farmyard manure application in combination with gypsum (0.44 g kg-1) in both loam and sandy clay loam soil, while 0.31 g kg-1 in the clay loam soil. Based on the results, it was concluded that reclaiming marginally salt-affected soils enhances food crop production and incorporating manures improves soil through aggregation and carbon sequestration, mitigating climate change.