Cut-Soiler Subsurface Drainage Spacing Study for Soil Desalination and Crop Yield

A three-year field study evaluated a low-cost subsurface drainage system for managing soil salinity in arid regions. The research found a 52.4% reduction in soil salinity and a 2.3x increase in pearl millet yield under optimal 2.5-meter drain spacing compared to control plots. The dataset, authored by Gajender Yadav and shared under CC-BY-4.0, documents the effects of different drain spacings on soil chemistry and crop productivity.

Use Cases

• Modeling the relationship between subsurface drain spacing and soil salinity reduction based on the described field experiment.
• Analyzing the impact of preferential shallow subsurface drainage on crop yield (pearl millet and mustard) as reported in the study.
• Investigating changes in soil ion concentrations (HCO3-, Cl-, SO4²⁻, Na⁺, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺) over time under different drainage treatments.
• Evaluating the cost-effectiveness of cut-soiler constructed drainage systems compared to conventional technologies as suggested by the description.

Strengths

• The study reports specific quantitative results, including a 52.4% reduction in soil salinity and a 2.3x increase in pearl millet yield.
• The experiment compares four distinct lateral spacings (2.5, 5.0, 7.5, 10.0 m) against a control over a three-year period.
• The description details changes in multiple soil chemistry parameters (pH, HCO3-, Cl-, SO4²⁻, Na⁺, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺).

Limitations

• The primary data file is a 2.0 MB DOCX document; the underlying tabular or raw observational data is not explicitly available.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for quantitative analysis.

Provenance

Source

Gajender Yadav via figshare.

Collection Method

Field experiment evaluating cut-soiler constructed preferential shallow subsurface drainage (PSSD) systems at different spacings.

Time Range

Study conducted over three years.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-26 06:03:30; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Likely conducted in an arid or semi-arid region with saline soil, but specific location is not stated.