Which crop, among the following, is relatively more tolerant to saline soils?

The correct answer is Barley.

Key Points

• Most plants are more sensitive to salinity during germination than at any other growth stage. However, there are large variations in the sensitivity of germinating seeds to salinity.
• Developing a suitable method for properly screening barley tolerance under salt stress is of great significance.
• Barley is known to be a tolerant crop to saline conditions but is not a tolerant crop for sodic conditions.
• The experiments were conducted using 26 barley genotypes at two research sites, without stress (soil salinity = 3 dS/m) and with stress (soil salinity = 14 dS/m, and irrigation water of 12 dS/m).
• Using the grain yield under non-stress and stress conditions, the salinity stress indices of barley genotypes including salinity susceptibility index (SSI, 0.68–1.12), tolerance index (TOL, 2570–11877), stress tolerance index (STI, 0.01–0.33), geometric mean productivity (GMP, 1433–7625), and mean productivity (MP, 633–6431) were determined.
• The ten most tolerant barley genotypes including 4Shur, Torkman, Makouei, Karoon, 5Shur, Bahman, Sahra, Torsh, Reihan and Goharjo were determined by the stress indices.
• The variation of the stress indices indicated that Nimruz was the most sensitive barley genotype under stress.
• The stress indices were highly correlated and accordingly useable for determining the relative salt tolerance of barley genotypes.