Making Plant Life Easier and Productive Under Salinity : Updates and Prospects

Abstract

Human health is closely linked with the health of the soil, which is both a vital resource for feeding the burgeoning global population via agriculture and vital to realizing most of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. However, increased salinization is significantly impacting the health of soil due to excess accumulation of varied salts (e.g., toxic ions including Cl− of Na+, HCO3−, Ca2+ and Mg2+, and sometimes SO42− and CO32−). Unfortunately, soil salinization has already affected about 20% of total arable land and 33% of irrigated land. Soil salinization negatively affects the health and productivity of plants and crops and thus threatens agriculture and food security worldwide. Moreover, it is predicted that by 2050, 16. 2 million ha of land will be affected by salt, which is predicted to cause 30%–50% yield losses worldwide. Making Plant Life Easier and Productive Under Salinity - Updates and Prospects provides a comprehensive overview of salinity and its major impacts. Chapters discuss important approaches for making plant life easier and more productive under salinity, the scale and complexity of salinity impacts on Sri Lankan rice farming systems, salinity stress responses of major metabolites, in vitro production of terpene in plants, the major mechanisms underlying phytohormone-mediated control of salinity impacts in plants, and genomics-assisted breeding approaches for achieving salinity tolerance in cereal crops.