Nanoparticles for effective management of salinity stress in plants

Climate change has brought in various stress conditions, and salt stress is one of the major concerns for the current agricultural scenario. Salt stress limits crop productivity as it has various deleterious effects on the plants system such as osmotic, nutritional, and hormonal imbalance. All of this eventually leads to reduced plant growth, low yield, and diminished photosynthetic activity which hampers the overall plant development. Additionally, the growing need to fulfill food security emphasizes the need for innovative technologies which can efficiently decrease the effects of abiotic stress conditions. Nanotechnology has emerged as growing field and has its applications in the agriculture, pharmaceutical, and biomedical industries. In this chapter, the significant role of nanoparticles in alleviating the damaging effects of salt stress is discussed in detail. They induce the adaptive mechanism of the plant and allow for response mechanism which helps the plant to overcome harsh conditions. Nanoparticles of various kinds have been employed for this purpose. This chapter gives a comprehensive view of the different metallic and nonmetallic nanoparticles which are successfully used for inducing tolerance in plants against salt stress.