Halophytes for Saline Lands, Their Economic Potential and Demonstration of Salt Tolerance

Increasing land degradation is posing a great threat to the perspectives of improving food and fodder production. Salinity stress is limiting agricultural crop productivity.  One of the most serious forms of land degradation is secondary salinity/sodicity (i.e. Salinity developed due to saline water irrigation), which is prevalent in arid and semiarid regions of world. The production capacity of such lands is inhospitable because of their poor physical and chemical properties, altered ecosystem, and disturbed nutrient cycling resulted from land overuse and continual addition of chemicals. Such problems are now the major determinants of global crop productivity and consequently reclamation of such soil resources is the most urgent requirement for world food production and sustainable development. However growing halophytes has been tried to reclaim such land.