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Degradation of soils irrigated with the ground waters having residual alkalinity constitutes a major threat to irrigated agriculture in semi-arid parts especially the South Asia. Paddy-wheat has come to stay as the major crop rotation in the afflicted areas, which is either irrigated solely with alkali waters (AW) or combined with good quality water supplies through canal networks. Therefore, to develop appropriate conjunctive use strategies for the latter situations, response of paddy and wheat was evaluated to the combined use of a good quality water (GW, ECiw 0.5, RSC nil) and that having residual alkalinity (AW, ECw 2.3 dS m(-1), RSC 11.3 mequiv L-1, SAR(w) 15 mmol L-0.5) for 6 years (1997-2003) in lysimeters (2.0 m deep, 0.9 m i.d., with drainage outlets at the bottom) filled in with a sandy loam soil (pH 7.8, ESP 5.3). Increase in soil pH (8.71), salinity (3.8 dS m(-1)) and sodicity (ESP 27.3) as a consequence of irrigation with alkali water markedly affected the yields of both the crops. The sustainability yield index (SYI) was 0.522 and 0.793 for paddy and wheat, respectively, indicating the sensitivity of the former to the use of alkali water. Keeping the AW input to be similar through irrigations, the SYI for paddy with blending of GW and AW in the ratio of 2:1, 1:1 and 1:2 was 0.732, 0.708 and 0.678, respectively, when compared with 0.751, 0.729 and 0.701 under intera-seasonal cyclic uses. Similarly, the SYI of wheat ranged between 0.821-0.907 and 0.853-0.949 with blending and cyclic uses of the two waters, indicating thereby a yield advantage with the latter. When the two waters were rotated inter-seasonally, the dilution effects of monsoon rains helped to induce greater use of AW for paddy. The overall deterioration in soil properties under different modes was related to proportion of AW applied. it was concluded that the alternating good quality and alkali waters could be a better way to alleviate sodicity problems caused with the use of alkali water alone. (c) 2006 Published by Elsevier B.V.