The Effect of Salinity and Magnetic Water on Yield and Water Use Efficiency of Cumin (Case Study: Kashmar Region)

In order to study the effect of magnetic field and different levels of saline irrigation water on cumin yield, a factorial experiment with a completely randomized block design with three replications was carried out in Kashmar Higher Education Institute in 2016. In this experiment, four salinity levels of irrigation water; 0.5 (S1) as control, 6 (S2), 8 (S3), and (S4) 10 dS m-1, and two levels of magnetic field; magnetic water (M1) and non-magnetic water (M2) Were used. The results showed that the magnetized water increased the yield of cumin compared with non-magnetized water. So that the maximum grain yield of cumin (1085 kg. ha-1) was corresponded to S1M1 treatment and the lowest one (530 kg ha-1) was corresponded toS4M2 treatment. Also, the maximum and the minimum biological yields (2215 and 1295 kg ha-1) were corresponded to the same treatments (S1M1 and S4M2) respectively. The yield reduction rates for 6, 8 and 10 dS m-1 saline waters were calculated to be 7.8, 14.7 and 32%, respectively for the magnetic field and 6, 15.7 and 44.5%, respectively for the non-magnetic field as compared to the control treatment. In addition, the average water use efficiencies of saline and magnetic water treatments (0.5, 6, 8 and 10 dS m-1) were estimated to be 8.8, 6.5, 10.3 and 17.4% greater than the ones of saline and non-magnetic water treatments, respectively. Therefore, the use of magnetic water can increase the yield of cumin under salt stress conditions.