Salinity

In Pakistan, salinity is one of the countrys most serious environmental problems,

caused by human-induced soil erosion and long-term mismanagement of various
agricultural practices (World Bank, 2006). Not only the soils but also the irrigation
water itself is one of the major source of salinity in the arid region (Rus et al.,
2002). Among the 25% of all irrigated land affected by salinity, approximately 1.4
Mha of land has now been abandoned (World Bank, 2006). Salinity is categorized
as an environmental agent, which confines the vegetative growth and productivity
by elevating the toxic ion concentration in rhizosphere, osmotic stress and water
shortage by reducing the water absorbing capacity of the plant. The salt stress may
be due to excess of many salts like Na2SO4, NaCl, MgCl2 etc but NaCl is
considered as dominating agent in this regard. High concentration of soluble salts
in growing media causes osmotic stress and limits the availability of water to plant
and this condition creates a drought condition regarded as physiological drought.
Salt stress disturb the water relations and various metabolic processes within the
plant tissue. (Porgali, 2001).

Salinity is a global issue so great effort has been dedicated to explore the
physiological aspects of salt tolerance in plants, as a basis for plant breeders to
develop salinity-tolerant genotypes. In spite of this great effort, there is a dire need
to identify the salt tolerant cultivars because only a little worth has been focused on
this approach. (Cuartero et al., 2006).

The importance of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.), as a vegetable crop, is

manifested by its large-scale cultivation around the globe. The area of Pakistan
under tomato cultivation in 2010 was 0.0049 Mha and production was 0.476828 M
tons ( FAO, 2010 ). Tomato has high nutritional value and consumed in our daily
life in the form of raw, cooked or processed forms. In Pakistan tomato is used as an
important component in making curry, chutneys, salads and in pickles almost
everyday at homes. It contains certain vitamins like vitamin A, C and E and very
important antioxidant lycopene. But, we are not getting the satisfactory production
under saline conditions instead of other factors like seed, fertilizers, insect-pest and
diseases, salinity also mainly contribute in minimizing the tomato production.
Tomato is moderately sensitive to salt tolerance level proved from various
experiments performed by Lyon (1941), Hayward and Long (1943), Bierhtjizen
and Ploegman (1967), Peralta et al.,( 2005). But the response to a single salinity
level also depends on the variety of tomato used (Byari and Al-Maghrabi, 1991). In
tomato plants stomatal density is reduced by salinity (Romero-Aranda et al., 2001).
Many researchers verified through their studies that due to salinity the
photosynthetic capacity of plants also concealed (Dubey, 1997; Kao et al., 2001;
Ashraf, 2001; Romero-Aranda et al., 2001). Most of the crops which are stressed
by salinity showed that it affects seed germination and early seedling growth which
are certainly the most responsive stages. (Sivritepe et al., 2003; Ashraf and Foolad,
2005). Salinity negatively affects seeds and seedlings and obviously significantly
contributes in establishment of poor stand and ultimately causing poor production
of vegetable crops (Grassbaugh and Bennett, 1998).

Since salinity is a global issue that limiting the vegetable growth and yield, and
tomato cannot be ignored in this scenario. As discussed above that there are
various causes of salinity but addition of factories effluents and use of underground
salty water are the dominant salinity causing agents. These agents adds and
enhance the toxic ions particularly the Na+ and Cl in the root zone, So these ions
are transmitted to the internal plant body where they cause malfunctioning of
various tissues and disturbances in metabolic mechanisms. Therefore, this study is
planned to compare the various physio-chemical differences in ten commercially
grown cultivars and on the basis of these findings we will categorized the tested
cultivars into salt tolerant and non-tolerant ones. The outcomes of present
investigation will be highly useful to the tomato growers. Secondly, the findings of
current investigation will also be helpful for the tomato breeders in strengthening
the tomato breeding programs related to salt stress.
Dr. Rashad Mukhtar Balal1,2, Dr. Muhammad Anjum Aqueel1,3, Dr. Muhammad
Adnan Shahid1,2, Hira Tariq1 and Ayesha Siddiqua1

1 University College of Agriculture, University of Sargodha, Pakistan

2 Cornell University, NY, USA