Possibility of Plantation of Barley and Corn Plants Irrigated with Saline Water in Yemen

The current study investigated the response of barley and corn plants to foliar application with proline, potassium nitrate fertilization. The effect of leaching fraction irrigation on both the growth and chemical composition of corn and barley plants and the salt accumulation in soil was also determined. The treatments included irrigation waters of different salinity (3.36, 5.88 or 7.95 dS/m), three rates of KNO3 (0, 4, and 8 g/pot) fertilizer, and foliar application with three rates of proline (0, 100, and 200 mg/L). The first experiment was irrigated with leaching fraction and the second without leaching fraction.  The effect of these parameters on the salt accumulation in soil was discussed. The obtained results showed that the dry weight of shoots of corn and barley were decreased as the salinity of irrigation water increased. The high salinity of water increased the shoot contents of Na+, Cl-, proline, and decreased NO-3 contents with or without leaching fraction, but the values without leaching fraction were higher than those of with leaching fraction. Besides, increasing the salinity of irrigation water decreased K content in the shoot, which was higher with leaching than without leaching. On the other hand, KNO3 fertilization or proline spraying decreased Na+, Cl- contents, and increased K+ or NO-3 contents in plant shoot of both crops and their values without leaching were higher than with leaching. The Electrical conductivity (EC) values of soil were increased with both increasing salinity of irrigation water and KNO3 fertilization. The decreased plant growth due to water salinity was partially offset by KNO3 fertilization, proline spraying, and leaching fraction application. Besides, KNO3 fertilization was more effective than proline for reducing the adverse effect of water salinity