Abstract:In arid and semi-arid areas with shallow groundwater depths, where the distribution of cultivated and wasteland is more dispersed and broken, dry drainage and salt control are important management tool for reducing soil salinization. Dry drainage salt control makes the non-irrigated wasteland an evaporative salt sink area, receiving water and salt from neighboring irrigated farmland. A typical dry drainage unit (wasteland and adjacent cultivated land of different crops) in Hetao Irrigation District was used as an example, and Darcy’s law was utilized to calculate and reveal the water and salt distribution and migration law between the wasteland and adjacent cultivated land. The results showed that there were significant differences in ET among different farmland types, and the average ET of corn farmland was 23.47% and 88.97% higher than that of sunflower farmland and wasteland, respectively, and the ET of sunflower farmland was 53.06% higher than that of wasteland;there were obvious differences in the salinity of soil in the root zone (0~100 cm) of different crops. The salinity in sunflower farmland was 2.10~2.47 times higher than that of corn farmland, and the average soil salinity of wasteland was 2.81~6.95 times that of cultivated land. In addition, during the spring irrigation and crop growth stages, irrigation and precipitation caused the groundwater depth of farmland to rise maximum of 157 cm, which promoted the migration of water and salts from the farmland to unirrigated wasteland, alleviating the salinity in the root system of the cultivated land, and sustaining the growth of the crop. During the spring irrigation period, the irrigation water of the sunflower field leaked and quickly drained to the unirrigated land, resulting in the maximum water and salt fluxes, with the average water transport amount of 0.045 cm/d and salt transport of 0.013 mg/(d·cm2). Wasteland, as the drainage area of cultivated land, had the function of maintaining water-salt balance, and the water-salt transport law among cultivated and wasteland was quantitatively analyzed, which can provide a theoretical basis for the water-salt balance law in arid areas.