Assessment of sub-soil salinity and sodicity constraints to barley and faba bean production

Assessment of sub-soil salinity and sodicity constraints to barley and faba bean production

Soil salinity and sodicity are two of the principal limitations to growth and yield of crop in arid and semi-arid areas of Australia (Rengasamy 2010). While saline-sodic soils have a number of nutritional limitations, breeding for salt tolerance has focussed largely on Na+ exclusion. The importance of high Cl- is poorly defined for soils in southern Australia, despite some soils containing high concentrations of Cl-. Despite numerous reports showing variability in ion exclusion for many crops, few salt-tolerant genotypes have been released (Flowers and Yeo 1995). This lack of success may be due in part to physiologists conducting experiments under ideal, controlled conditions (e.g. hydroponics, sand cultures and greenhouse or growth chamber environments). However, genotypic differences measured under controlled conditions may not correspond to those observed under actual field conditions (Tavakkoli et al. 2010a; Tavakkoli et al. 2010b). Therefore, the objective of our study was to assess the value of Na+ and Cl- exclusion to yield in saline soils as a basis of developing more salt tolerant varieties.

Australian government project report.