Plant tolerance mechanisms to soil salinity contribute to the expansion of agriculture and livestock production in Argentina

EDITH TALEISNIK; ANDRES ALBERTO RODRIGUEZ; DOLORES BUSTOS; FERNANDO LUNA

Saline and Alkaline Soils in Latin America

Springer International Publishing

Año: 2020;

This chapter addresses salttolerance mechanisms in crops and woody species cultivated in Argentina,highlighting the contribution of local research to these topics. Work onforages and woody species represents approximately half of this research, thathas been published by Argentine authors in international journals. Basicresearch on plant-salinity mounts to only 12% of the total, highlighting thatit still does not attract sufficient consideration among researchers. Among forage plants, attention in this chapteris focused on Rhodesgrass (Chloris gayanaKunth), while in woody perennials, salt tolerance mechanisms in Prosopis, which have been extensivelyinvestigated locally, are reported. Despite theimportance of soybeans in Argentine economy, as well as that of other crops suchas maize, wheat, sunflower, etc., relatively little research attention has beenpaid to salinity issues in these major field crops. This situation may reflect thefact that they are mostly cultivated in non-saline soils.