Assessment of Soil Salinity and Irrigation Water Quality of Chanchaga Irrigation Scheme I, Minna, Niger State

Abstract

The extent to which salinity is increasing in arid and semi-arid regions recently has become a concern in irrigation and nonirrigation land. In view of this, the study evaluated soil salinity and irrigation water quality at Chanchaga Irrigation Scheme I, Minna, Niger State with the aim of assessing the soil fertility status and irrigation water source of the scheme. The study took soil samples at 0 - 30cm depth from irrigated and non-irrigated plots and water was taken from the main point of the border irrigation system. Both soil and water sample collected were subjected to laboratory analysis. The study determined sodium absorption ratio and exchangeable sodium percentage of soil and water parameters analyzed in the laboratory. The Levene's test for equality of variances was performed on the concentration of the parameters analyzed in both soil (irrigated and non-irrigated plot) and water of the scheme. The study reveals that the sodium concentration was found higher in the irrigated plot than control plot and the EC and SAR values of the irrigated plot was classified as sodic. The SAR and other exchangeable values in both irrigated and non-irrigated plot have equal variances (> 0.10) with the exception of chlorine which is significant. The level of potassium in the water was higher and sodic in nature. The study concluded that the sodium hazard in both soil and water was higher than the desirable limits. It is important to take the soil sample of the whole plots so as to examine the salt variation in the scheme.