Salt Stress and its Mitigation Strategies for Enhancing Agricultural Production

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In agriculture, salinity has been a major limiting factor in food security. Soil salinity has been shown to limit land utilization and crop productivity. It is especially crucial to avoid such losses as the ever-increasing global population imposes a tremendous amount of pressure on human populations to produce more food and feed. Salt stress has a negative effect on the whole plant and can be seen at all phases of growth, including germination, seedling and vegetative stages. Tolerance to salt stress, on the other hand, varies with plant developmental processes and even from species and cultivars. Salinity in the agricultural system can be managed by adopting various mitigation strategies. To maintain higher productivity in salt-affected environments, salt-tolerant genotypes must be introduced, as well as precise site-specific production systems. Recent advances in genetics and biotechnology, along with traditional breeding methods, provide the potential to create transgenic cultivars that perform well under stress. Exogenous treatment of certain osmoprotectants and growth regulators, as well as nutrient management and seed rejuvenation strategies, may be beneficial for cost-effective agricultural production in saline soils