Salinity Tolerance in Plants

Salinity is one of the major abiotic stresses, which poses an enormous constraint to crop production. It has been estimated that increased salinization of arable land will result in about 30% land loss within next 25 years. During times when agriculture is already under tremendous pressure, due to the ever increasing world population, it has become imperative that new, innovative methods be adopted to increase the crop productivity. Developing salt tolerant plants through traditional plant breeding and genetic engineering or using a combination of both, will enable farmers to counter the challenge of saline soils. The recent advances in the field of plant genomics, can help us better understand the complexities involved in salinity tolerance and can enable us to fortify the development of salt tolerant crop varieties.