ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the effect of soil salinity on agriculture, augmentation and mechanism of resistance in plants against salinity stress in order to increase plant growth and productivity by the application of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria. Soil salinization involves increase in the concentration of dissolved salts in the soil profile, which degrades soil health and consequently affects crop productivity impacting the lives of many organisms that depend on plants for food, nutrition and shelter. Increasing soil salinization as well as the challenge of feeding the world's growing population has attracted many investigators towards plant and soil productivity research. When precipitation is inadequate to percolate ions from the soil profile, salts hoard in the soil leading to soil salinization. Due to the introduction of irrigation in new areas each year, soil salinization is increasing gradually. A variety of mechanisms have been proposed previously by different investigators based on studies done on microbes stimulated stress tolerance in plants.
