**Abstract**

Rice is the most important staple food crop of much of the world's population. Production and consumption of rice is higher in Asia but adverse environmental conditions critically threaten the rice production. Soil salinity has been a key abiotic constraint affecting the crop production by reducing growth, development and yield of the plant. Rice is highly sensitive to salinity specifically at the early vegetative and late reproductive stages. Therefore, studying the responses of crop at the morphological, physiological, biochemical and molecular level is an effective strategy. Understanding the mechanisms behind the salinity such as osmotic stress and osmolytes, ion exclusion, inclusion and compartmentation, antioxidant response and hormonal regulation. Different screening strategies such as phenotypic and genotypic screening for rice under salinity and select the salt tolerant lines. Using the conventional and molecular breeding approaches is a prerequisite for its effective management and to develop salt tolerant cultivars in rice.

**Keywords:** rice, salinity, responses, mechanisms, screening, breeding methods
