Soil Fertility and Nutrient management (1+1)

Formation of salt affected soils

• Nature and amount of soluble salts play an important role in the formation salt affected soils. Soluble salts are those inorganic chemicals that are more soluble than gypsum. Soluble salts in soils are mainly composed of the cations like sodium (Na+), Calcium (Ca2+) and magnesium (Mg2+) and potassium (K+) and ammonium (NH4+) in small amount.
• The anions like chlorides (Cl-). Sulphates (SO42-) carbonates (CO32-) and bicarbonates (HCO3-). The salt formation is therefore expected to result from a combination of these groups such as NaCl, Na2SO4, MgSO4, CaCl2, CaSO4, Na2CO3, NaHCO3, and MgCO3 and CaCO3.

Salt affected soils formed mainly in 2 phases or process:
1. Salinization process: Process of accumulation of soluble salts in the soil results in the formation of saline soil.
2. Alkalization process: Process of accumulation of exchangeable sodium in the soil & formation of sodic soils is termed as alkalization.