Salinity is considered a crucial environmental factor that limits the
production of the crop in many parts of the world with marginal agricultural soils. It
causes a reduction in agricultural productivity globally and renders an estimated onethird of irrigated land of the world unsuitable for the production of crops. A high
concentration of salt can kill all the crops and plants. Salinity can affect the yield and
growth of most crops, as the higher rate of salinity can cause both hyperosmotic and
hyper ionic effects in plants, leading to an increase in the production of activated
oxygen species, membrane disorganization, and metabolic toxicity. Its effects on the
growth and development of plants include osmotic stress, ion toxicity, mineral
deficiencies, biochemical and physiological perturbations, and combinations of these
stressors. Salinity reduces Ca2+ availability that in turn decreases the mobility and
transport of Ca2+ to growing regions of the plant when dominated by Na+
salts and
thereby affects the quality of both reproductive and vegetative organs. The horticultural
crops are mostly glycophytes that evolved under the conditions of low salinity of the
soil. Nutrient uptake is directly affected by salinity, such as Cl-
reducing NO3- uptake or
Na+
reducing K+
uptake. The performance of crops may be affected adversely by
salinity-induced nutritional disorders. These disorders resulting from salinity may
affect the availability of nutrients, transporter partitioning, and competitive uptake
within the plant. This chapter will elucidate the deleterious effect of salinity on the
growth and development of crop plants.
Keywords: Agricultural soils, Crop, Ion toxicity, Nutritional disorders, Salinity.
