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The groundwater in Pakistani sandy deserts is generally highly saline and not suitable for drinking. However, it can e Utilized for growing beneficial salt-tolerant plants To explore the potential of desert land for farm production two crops of barley and mustard were cultivated on coarse- and fine-textured soils with saline water irrigations ill the. Cholistan desert. The salinity (electrical conductivity, EC) of irrigation water was 6.2 dS m(-1). The barley and mustard crops were irrigated five and four times, respectively, including pre-sowing irrigation. At the end of crop maturity, as a result of saline water irrigation the soil infiltration was reduced by an average of 70%. The EC and exchangeable sodium percentage (ESP) of the experimental plots were increased by 2.2 dS m(-1) and 9.0. respectively The average yield of barley and mustard was 264 and 177 kg ha(-1) respectively It was concluded that production of barley and mustard crops could be increased further by better levelling the plots, reducing level differences to less than 10 cm. The saline water should be used carefully to irrigate fine-textured soils to keep the salinity within the safe limit to avoid permanent failure of crop growth and yield. Copyright (C) 2008 John Wiley & Sons. Ltd.