Salinity stress management in field crops: An overview of the agronomic approaches

Abstract

Crop plants have defined roles in the global food supply. Cereals, pulses, beans, and grains are particularly important for their nutrients and easy availability for consumers who cannot purchase meat and dairy products. Thus, elevated production of field crops for addressing the food and energy demands of the human population is crucially necessary, and it remains one of the emerging areas of interest for agronomists. In global agriculture, a significant proportion of cultivated land is affected by soil salinity. The problem has devastating effects on crops’ growth, yield, and production. The adversities of salinity stress on crops become even worse in regions with low rainfall and high evaporation rate and where substandard irrigation practices are common. Soils enriched with salinity affect the growth, physiology, and production by triggering water deficit conditions, ionic toxicity, oxidative stress, and alteration in metabolic events. To reduce the agronomical, physiological, and biochemical damages on crops imposed by high salinity levels, development of salt-tolerant varieties and modulation in agricultural practices seem to be ideal strategies as they would lead to attaining high yields of crops under a stressful environment. In this paper, a comprehensive review is presented about the problem of salinity and updates about management strategies in crop plants employing agronomic approaches.