Salinity, whether primary or secondary, is among the most destructive abiotic stresses that disturb the plants from germination to physiological maturity. This problem is more severe in arid areas that get low yearly rainfall and are prone to high evapo -transpiration. Land under salinity stress is increasing on daily basis and it is thought that about half of the fertile land would become saline by the year 2050. The effects of salinity are highly diverse and depend s on large number of factors like amount, intensity and duration of salinity and crop growth stages. Increased uptake of toxic ions couples with limited uptake of essential minerals resulting in significant reduction in enzymatic activity and disturbance in cell metabolism. Moreover, increased solute potential and reactive oxygen species inside the cells ac t as secondary damaging factors to physiological process and plant anatomy . Plants struggle to avoid or escape the stress by closing the stomata which results in stunted growth , wilting of plant s and reduced productivity. Germplasm can be evaluated using different methods to access the salinity tolerance and their further administration in different breeding programs could develop tolerant cultivars. Key Words: Drought Tolerance Indices, PCA, Radar Diagram, Yield and Yield Components Introduction
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