Reclamation of Problem Soils

The availability of land for growing crops is limited, which has burdened the task of feeding the growing world population. Acidity and salinity are the two widely recognized problems throughout the world, which requires sustainable measures for their reclamation. An efficient and low cost method is required to improve these soils. The application of basic slag was very effective not only for remediation of soil acidity but also to improve one of the important criteria of Ca:Mg ratio in the coastal ASS. Soil slaking is an environment-friendly technique that is gaining importance in restoring saline soil. Soil slaking has long been studied from the stand point of stability of aggregates. But, it has not been studied from that of salt removal (new aspect of soil slaking). Experimental results clearly indicate that after slaking, the maximum salt is released at the soil moisture of maximum slaking and the saturated hydraulic conductivity was large enough for good drainage. Thus, field drying practice to the optimum slaking water content may be effective on salt removal without degrading permeability.