Soil Salinity Survey: Supporting Report
Bibliographic details
Summary
This report presents a description of the salinity survey which was undertaken as one of the principle components of the indus basin planning project for the preparation of the revised action programme for irrigated agriculture. The project document provided for field investigations of soil salinity and/or alkalinity conditions to be carried out in selected parts of the irrigated plains, to indicate changes in salinity/alkalinity since the previous survey in the early 1960's and to provide a basis for planning reclamation needs and establishing production potentials in the revised action programme. For the survey, employing fresh serial photography, soil borings were to be made on the average of one per square mile over an area of 21 million acres. The soil samples and ground water samples from the bores where the watertable was encountered within a depth of 10 feet, had to be analysed for salinity/alkalinity factors. Apart from the coverage of selected areas of the irrigated plains, salinity survey was also undertaken in greater detail for the 61 water courses which were chosen for intensive data collection pertaining to water use and agro economic factors. The salinity surveys included the appraisal of soil salinity/sodicity and shallow groundwater quality, det3ermination of soil textures to a depth of 10 feet, land use of the surveyed areas and drainability classification of areas according to different ranges of water table depth.