Salt tolerant rice varieties

Crop species sensitive to soil salinity are known as glycophytes, whereas plants grown in the water of high salinity or which can generally tolerate high salt concentrations are known as halophytes.
Salinity stress affects seed germination, seedling growth, leaf size, shoot growth, shoot and root length, shoot dry weight, shoot fresh weight, number of tillers per plant, flowering stage, spikelet number, percent of sterile florets, and productivity.
Soil salinity is one of the major constraints affecting rice production worldwide, especially in coastal areas.
Rice plants generally tolerate salt by mainly two mechanisms, ion exclusion, and osmotic tolerance. Ion exclusion mainly involves Na⁺ and Cl^– transport processes in roots, which prevent the excess accumulation of Na⁺ and Cl^– in leaves. The ideal salinity tolerant variety should possess tolerance to a high amount of Na⁺, control the uptake of Na^+, and keep high uptake of K⁺, good initial vigor, agronomically superior with high yield potential.