Rice straw biochar application to soil irrigated with saline water in a cotton-wheat system improves crop performance and soil functionality in north-west India

Applications of biochar to degraded soils have attracted considerable interest because of its capacity to enhance nutrients availability to the plants, sequester C and immobilize organic and inorganic pollutants. A five-year field experiment was conducted in a cotton-wheat system to investigate the effect of different levels of irrigation water salinity (0.3, 5, 10, and 15 dS m−1) and rice straw biochar (0, 2, 4, and 8 t ha−1) on the crop yield and soil functions. Rice straw-derived biochar was applied every year to cotton and its residual effect was observed on wheat. Results of the study indicated that regular irrigation with saline water (5–15 dS m−1) reduced both seed cotton (12–44%) and wheat grain (7–27%) yield. However, application of biochar (2–8 t ha−1) to plots irrigated with saline water showed 6–23% and 13–27% greater seed cotton and wheat grain yield compared with unamended plots, respectively. Likewise, biochar application to soil irrigated with canal or saline water showed significant beneficial effects on soil pH, EC, nutrient metabolism and availability, bulk density, infiltration rate and microbial biomass carbon. Our results indicated that biochar amendment especially at the optimum rate of 4 t ha−1 effectively promoted crop performance by ameliorating soil physical, chemical, and biological properties. In the absence of any chemical amendment for alleviating salinity stress, the results of the present study established that the biochar holds promising potential as a soil amendment in ameliorating soil functions and promoting plant productivity under saline water irrigated conditions.