ABSTRACT
Salt affected soils are important group of problematic soils which has limited productivity thereby has a very serious threat to agriculture. Such salt affected soils can be categorized under different types based on its chemical nature viz., saline soil, sodic soil and saline-sodic soil. India has about 6.74 M ha of salt affected soils which are needed to be reclaimed timely for better use and production of agricultural lands. Conventional chemical methods are readily available to ameliorate the salt affected soil. However, certain constraints like limited availability, high cost and presence of impurities restrict its application. So, some easy and cost-effective methods like biological approaches may be explored. Phytoremediation was found to be promising biological approach to ameliorate the salt affected soils while neglecting constrains of chemical amendments. Phytoremediation was found to exchange the Na+ by effectively dissolving the Ca2+ in the soil solution. In this chapter, different strategies are discussed under subsequent heads which witnesses the improvement in soil properties. Here, aromatic plants very promising and can be utilized effective tool for phytoremediation. In a long run, they aid in improvement of soil quality by ameliorating the salt affected soils while maintaining biological yield.
