About 6.5% (831 million ha) of the worlds total area (12.

78 billion ha) is affected by salt in soils (FAO). Area under salt stress is on the increase due to many factors including climate change, rise in sea levels, excessive irrigation without proper drainage in inlands, underlying rocks rich in harmful salts etc., Vast areas of land are not utilized due to salinity and alkalinity problems. In india an area of 13.3 mha is salt affected either by salinity or sodicity which considerably limits the agricultural production. S.Geetha et al., (2006) Out of 14.6 mha of salt affected soil in India, sodic soil occupies 6.9 m ha-1,out of 329 million hectares of total geographical area in our country the arid and semi-arid occupy more then one third of the area (127.4 m ha). The salt affected soils occurring in these zones occupy 12m ha spread over in 15 states of the country. These salt affected soil zones comprise of 4012 m ha of alkali soil, 3.26 m ha of saline soil and 4.62 m ha of saline alkali soils. Among these salt affected soils, alkali soils are found to be highly problematic for crop production because of very poor physical and chemical environment particularly in irrigated areas. Sodicity problem in irrigated agriculture is becoming more and more serious because of poor quality water, lack of adequate knowledge about soils and poor management practices. The amelioration of these alkali soils is not only expensive but also time consuming and laborious ( Gupta et al.,1995)

Sodic or alkali soils occur extensively in the Indo-Gangetic alluvial plains of northern India and in several other parts of the world. An excess of exchangeable sodium, predominated with salts viz. sodium bicarbonate, sodium carbonate and sodium silicate, which are capable of alkaline hydrolysis. high pH, and adverse soil physical properties characterize these soils. In sodic soils, the dominant cation on the exchange complex is sodium, which disperses clay and imparts adverse soil physical conditions including poor soil-water behaviour to these soils. As a result, these soils have poor water permeability. To maintain productivity of salt-affected degraded soils it is important to manage these soils in such a way so as to prevent their resodication, sustain their physical and chemical properties and fertility status. Due to low use of fertilizers and organic manures, and imbalance application of nutrients there is a decline in fertility of reclaimed alkali soils. Reclamation of alkali soils is essential as not only do these soils occupy significant areas, but these lands are potentially and inherently fertile. Information generated so far on

reclamation and management of sodic soils showed that, these alkali lands can be put to crop production provided they are ameliorated through amendments. The problem soils can successfully be cultivated by removing excessive soluble salts and exchangeable sodium through reclamation techniques. Various amendments like gypsum, sulfur and acids may be used for amelioration of these soils (Muhammad, 1990; Sharma et al., 1996; Biggar, 1996). Being easily available and cheap source of calcium, gypsum is commonly used Because of low solubility of gypsum and calcareous nature of soils, its efficiency is reduced. Efforts are being made to bring these soils under cultivation through application of amendments, preferably gypsum, and adoption of rice (Oryza sativa L.)-based cropping sequence (Abrol and Bhumbla 1979; Oster 1982; Swarup 1985a; Swarup and Singh 1989). Rice is a suitable and popular rainy season crop grown during the initial years of sodic soil reclamation because of its high tolerance of sodium and reclaiming effect (McNeal et al. 1966; Chhabra and Abrol 1977; Swarup 1985b), followed by wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in winter (rabi or postrainy season). Apart from reclamation, fertilization of crops assumes an important role since sodic soils are poor in fertility (Swarup 1987). Nanotechnology applications in agriculture are gradually transforming the theoretical possibilities into the practical applications. The potential is increasing with suitable techniques and sensors being identified for precision agriculture, natural resource management, early detection of pathogens and contaminants in food products, efficient delivery systems for agrochemicals such as fertilizers and pesticides, improved systems integration for food processing, packaging and other areas like monitoring agricultural and food system security (Moraru et al., 2007; Chau et al., 2007; Subramanian and Rahale, 2010).
The introduction of nanotechnology in reclamation of problem soils is unattempted hence the maiden attempt of reclaiming the sodic soil with nanogypsum is undertaken in the present study with the following objectives. Synthesis and characterization of nano-gypsum with nanotech equipments. To study the effect of nano-gypsum on the reclamation of the sodic soil. Evaluation of nono-gypsum to remediate sodic soil and associated response on crop growth and yield parameters of rice.