Growing Watermelon(Citrullus lanatus)under saline environment

Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus Thanb. Mavs.) is a monoecious cross-pollinated crop annual one of the twelfth species from the family Cucurbitaceae a major vegetable crop family. Area of Pakistan under watermelon production is about 30000 hectares having production of 150000 tons annually. Overall Pakistan stands on 25th position in the world in term of watermelon production and 17th position on area vise with area of 27200 hectares and produces 406000 tons of it annually. A loss of PKR 20 million per year has been estimated on the salt affected soils of Pakistan because of decrease in agricultural products. About 6.67 million hectares of land in Pakistan is salt-affected and about 1.89 hectares is saline. An area of about 1.85 million hectares is permeable to saline-sodic and 1.39 million hectares is impermeable saline-sodic and naturally 0.028 million hectares is sodic while in Punjab 2.22 million hectares saline patches. There was a dire need to work on the issue to fill the gape between the potential and actual yield owing to abiotic stresses.