Assessment of Economical Threshold for Different Crop Yields at Different Soil Salt Concentrations in Harran Plain

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the effects of increased soil salinity on six different crops’ yield grown in Harran plain,and evaluate the possible farming strategies to increase the agricultural production profi tability under certain salinity levels. Salinity levels used ranged from 0.0 to 30.0 dS m-1, which were present at lower laying part of the Harran plain. Farming inputs included fi eld preparation and sowing, maintenance, harvest and transportation, and other costs. On the other hand, value of revenue included the revenue plus additional revenues.Economical analyses of the data revealed that under the 10.0 dS m-1 salinity, vegetables were more profi table, especially eggplant (13.0 dS m-1) followed by tomato (10.0 dS m-1) and pepper (6.0 dS m-1). As far as agronomic crops concerned, their salt tolerance was high with profi table farming up to 14 dS m-1. Among those agronomic crops, wheat was the most profi table crop as
compared to cotton and the second crop corn. However, since the governmental subsidizes were high for cotton, cotton cultivation was more profi table. Therefore the farmers in the lower-laying part of the Harran plain prefer to grow cotton.