Response of Seventeen Advance Rice Lines to Salinity and Sodicity

Abstract

A mong the abiotic environmental stressors, soil salinity is one of the major constraints to crop productivity and continue to increase at an alarming rate due to climate uncertainties. Approximately, 77 million ha of cultivable land have been degraded by salt stress in the world (Munns and Tester, 2008), with an annual loss of US$110,000 million ( Joshi et al., 2015). Globally, Asia has the largest salt affected area of 24.31% (Gerona et al., 2019), posing a great threat to food security for increasing population. This situation attracts many researchers to work for the efficient and economical utilization of salt stress areas by improving salt-tolerant plant species. Rice (Oryza sativa L.) serve as the staple food of about Abstract | Rice is considered one of the most salt sensitive cereals, however, a great genetic diversity exists within rice species for salinity tolerance. Therefore, a study was executed to identify salinity tolerance of seventeen advance rice lines based on of agronomic characters and Na and K contents. Advance lines of