The accumulation of salt in arable lands is a source of significant abiotic stress, contributing to a 10% decline in the world's total arable lands and threatening food productivity and the sustainability of agriculture. About 76 million hectares of productive land are estimated to have been affected by human-induced salinization such as extreme salt deposits in soil, which are mainly caused by the actions of humans. For instance, continued irrigation and the frequent use of chemical fertilizers need to be understood. To ensure food availability, it is essential to improve upon traditional farming methods using current technologies to facilitate the reclamation of saline-affected arable lands to achieve high and sustainable food production. This review details current innovative strategies such as the modification of metabolic pathways, manipulation of antioxidant pathways, genetic engineering, RNA interference technology, engineered nanoparticles, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), organic amendments, and trace elements for improving saline marginal lands. These strategies were identified to have contributed to the improvement of plants salinity tolerance in diverse ways. For instance, the accumulation of plant metabolites such as amino acids, sugars, polyols, organic acids, saponins, anthocyanins, polyphenols, and tannins detoxify plants and play crucial roles in mitigating the detrimental effects of oxidative damage posed by salinity stress. Multiple plant miRNAs encoding the up- and down-regulation of single- and multi-ion transporters have been engineered in plant species to enhance salt tolerance. Nanomaterials and plant root system colonized by arbuscular mycorrhizal increase water uptake, photosynthetic efficiency, and biomass allocation in plants exposed to saline stress by excluding 65 percent of the Na+ uptake and enhancing K+ uptake by 84.21 percent. Organic amendments and trace elements reduced salinity concentrations by 22 percent and improved growth by up to 84 percent in maize subjected to salinity stress. This study also discusses how researchers can use these strategies to improve plants growth, development, and survival in saline soil conditions to enhance the productivity and sustainability of agriculture. The strategies discussed in this study have also proven to be promising approaches for developing salinity stress tolerance strategies for plants to increase agricultural productivity and sustainability.

Biochar has been found to be an effective soil amendment in agriculture based upon its manifold functional groups as well as porous structure. However, the impacts of this material on soil mechanical properties are still poorly explored, especially under oscillatory shear conditions (as common due to traffic of agricultural machinery). Hence, our study investigates how short-term application of different rates and types of biochar in successive crops affects soil microstructural resistance, viscoelasticity, and resilience under oscillatory shear. In a completely randomized greenhouse pot experiment, wheat and soybean were grown successively in a sandy loam soil under single addition of two types of biochar (derived from either rice or soybean straw) at application rates (0 - control, 10 and 20 t ha-1). After crop harvesting, disturbed soil samples were collected in three layers to conduct amplitude sweep and thixotropy tests and analyze soil chemical properties. Biochar application resulted in extended elastic behavior, whereas soil strength decreased at low shear strain. Conversely, at high shear strain biochar had a destabilizing effect on soil microstructure, as indicated by the advancement of the flow point and lower overall viscoelasticity in biochar amended soils. Despite reduced microstructure stiffness exhibited in thixotropy tests, soil amended with biochar almost recovered completely its stiffness after high shear impact. However, significant effects were only noticed in topsoil layer independent of biochar type applied. Hence, accumulated biochar on soil surface layer had an overall negative impact on soil mechanical stability.