Management of poor quality water for use in agriculture

Water scarcity is one of the major problems that is faced by the country. Agriculture sector is one of the major consumers of water. Whenever good quality water is scarce, water of poor quality has been considered as an alternative for use in agriculture. Poor quality water refers to water that does not meet the required standards for irrigation. Continuous and unplanned use of this water can have deleterious effect on soil, crop, ground water and human health. This paper describes the importance of appropriate farm management practices like land leveling, scheduling/frequency of irrigation, crop selection, conjunctive use of poor quality and good quality water, addition of amendments etc to use marginal quality water with minimal hazards to soil, plant and human beings.