Brackish water used for irrigation in shortage of appropriate soil-water-crop practices often constitutes salinity in the soil profile. Canal irrigation water is scarce to aid agriculture; thus, a supplementary water supply requires accessibility from drainage water. In Pakistan, groundwater is brackish because of elevated levels of electrical conductivity (EC), residual sodium carbonates (RSC), and sodium adsorption ratio (SAR). But these waters can benefit well for irrigation during the primary phase of saline-sodic soil’s reclamation, if employing appropriate management practices, such as, chemical and organic amendments. A pot trial procedure ran under environmental conditions at the research area of the Department of Soil and Environmental Sciences, College of Agriculture, University of Sargodha, to assess the effect of sodic water with various amendments on sorghum and berseem fodder crops. The pot experiment comprised seven treatments, including T₁ = Control having canal water with SAR 0.1 and EC 0.2 dS m^-1; T₂ = Sodic water with SAR 15; T₃ = Sodic water (SAR 15) + Gypsum; T₄ = Sodic water (SAR 15) + H₂SO₄; T₅ = Sodic water (SAR 15) + compost; T₆ = Sodic water (SAR 15) + FYM; T₇ = Sodic water (SAR 15) + poultry manure, with three replicates under complete randomized design (CRD) by sowing sorghum “JS-88” and berseem “Hisar Berseem 1” cultivars taken from the Fodder Research Institute (FRI), Sargodha. The agronomic and fodder quality attributes were maximum in T₃ treatment in sorghum compared with other concentrations and berseem. In both crops, mineral nutrients were variable, and nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium were maximum in T5, compared with others.

Keywords: Fodder crops, berseem, sorghum, chemical and organic amendments, brackish water, canal water, gypsum

Key findings: The application of sodic water alone as irrigation impaired the properties of soil, agronomic, and mineral nutrients, and quality parameters of fodder crops. The safe determination that sodic water usage with gypsum amendment proved superior to all other alterations being the most extensively used amendment due to its less cost, general obtainability, and more supply of calcium (Ca²⁺) for an extended period, tailed by leaching of salts by improving sodic soils.