Salinity Stress – A Threat to Rice Production Breeding Strategies to Develop Salinity Tolerance in Plants

Abstract

Rice is a most staple and demandable food crop of the world which feeds more than half of the world’s overall population. Soil salinity has become a serious problem of the world nowadays which is a common threat to all agricultural crops specially rice because rice is categorized as a typical glycophyte. Salinity is one of the major constraints especially in the coastal areas of the world. This salinity problem can be overcome by conventional and modern breeding technologies. We have focused on the breeding techniques to be adopted to cope with this issue. Salt tolerant varieties can be produced by screening already existing varieties, marker-assisted selection or genetic engineering by introducing salt-tolerance genes. In this review, we have focused salinity problems at global level and its impact on rice as well as other crops plants.