Salinity Management for Barley Productionin Brackish and Treated Effluent Irrigated Agricultural Systems

Marginal water resources such as brackish, and treated waste water are promising water resources as alternatives for fresh water to be used in agriculture specially crops with high tolerance to salinity such as barley. This study aims to; evaluate the effect of five different water concentrations on the behavior and productivity of five different barley varieties to demonstrate the salinity tolerance of each variety. Five barley varieties Hordium Vlgure were cultivated under five different water applications, the applications included fresh water(Fw) as a control with TDS concentration of 442 ppm , treated wastewater (Tww) with salinity of 1200 ppm, and three levels of water salinity. The levels of salinity were: S1 (1080 ppm), S2 (3240 ppm), and S3 (9720 ppm). The experiment was designed under CRBD by split plot design with 3 replications. The results of the experiment showed that in all cases there is a significant (p≤0.05) difference between the high concentration (S3) and other concentrations, causing a reduction in the grain and straw yields of barely. Also, the analysis show that straw yield and height of plants were significantly smaller for the high salinity concentration (S3). Results also showed that there is a significant increase in yield when using Tww compared with other treatments. When treated wastewater was used, the grain yield, straw yield and height of plants were significantly higher than those in the other treatments for all varieties of barley. On the other hand, concentrations S1, S2 and Fw didn't show significant differences among them in terms of grain yield. However, S1 and S2 didn`t give significant differences in straw yield, and there was no significant difference between S2 and Fw. For height, S3 treatment produced significantly shorter plants. Tww treatment produced plants higher than those of other treatments. According to varieties, variety 4 and variety 1 gave the highest yield of grains and there are significant differences among variety 4 and varieties 2,3,and5 while there was no significant difference among varieties1, 2, 3, and 5. On the other hand it was observed that there was no significant differences between varieties 4 and 1 For straw yield, varieties 1 and 4 showed the highest yield so, there were significant differences between variety1 and varieties 2,3, and 5. There was a significant difference between variety 4 and varieties 2, 3, and 5. It has been concluded no significant differences between 4 and1. For interaction between salinity and variety, the environmental conditions should be the main reason for selecting the suitable variety. Its clear that the use of brackish water and Tww in irrigating such crops will be promising and saving traditional water sources for domestic uses. which couldn't use Tww and brackish water for that.