**4. Agronomic managements for salt tolerance in oilseed** *Brassica*

*Brassica* adopts many intrinsic mechanisms to tolerate the salt stress through activating stress tolerance traits, and further enhancement of salt endurance capacity could be achieved by incorporating agronomic managements. These management practices include nutrient management, seed priming, application of hormones and other inorganic and organic elicitors. Some of them are presented in the **Table 10**.

Nutrient management in the salt-affected field could be an effective way to counteract the adversity of salinity in *Brassica*. Application of N, Zn, and Ca in salt-stressed *Brassica* plants significantly improved the stress tolerance [40, 51]. For instance, application of N (5, 10, and 20 mM) reduced the leaf Na+ and Cl− contents, oxidative stress markers (H2O2 and TBARS) and helped to regulate osmotic balance in *B. juncea* under salinity [51]. Foliar spraying of 1 mM Zn improved growth and biomass of *B. juncea* in NaCl stress (100 and 200 mM) through reducing oxidative stress by augmenting antioxidants activities [40]. Sarkar and Kalita [153] applied selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) in salt-stressed *B. campestris* plants and found that SeNPs (12.5 and 50 mg L−1) improved GP, SL, RL, and Chl content and thus enhanced salt tolerance of the plants.

Seed invigoration through priming could be an effective tool to enhance germination of *Brassica* under salinity. Comparative study by using three different priming techniques, such as hydro-priming, chemo-priming (CaCl2), and hormonal priming (ABA) in salt-stressed *B. juncea*, Srivastava et al. [154] reported that GP and the rate of germination were increased in the primed seeds than the non-primed. Seed priming with different concentrations of SA (1, 1.5, 2, and 5 mM) improved the GP and the average velocity of germination of *B. napus* under salt stress [84].



#### **Table 10.**

*Supplementation of different chemical elicitors to inhibit the adversity of salt stress in Brassica sp.*

Application of SA (1 mM) and 24-EBL (0.1 μM) in salt-treated mustard improved the contents of anthocyanins, phenolics, flavonoids, Chl *a*, Chl *b*, and Car and also reduced lipid peroxidation by enhancing antioxidant activities. Whereas foliar spraying of GA3 increased P*n*, g*s* in salt-stressed *Brassica* sp. [155]. Siddiqui et al. [155] also found reduced MDA content, EL and increased activity of NR and CA in the saltstressed plants.

Other inorganic and organic chemical elicitors are also used to induce the salt tolerance in *Brassica* plants. Application of NO alleviates salt stress in *Brassica* crops through enhancing P*n*, g*s*, C*i*, NR, and CA activity compared with the non-saline control plants [15]. Beside this, Sami et al. [14] also sprayed glucose (4%) to ameliorate the salt stress in *Brassica* sp. and found profound increase of growth, photosynthetic and antioxidant enzyme activities. Further, Xu et al. [156] reported that pretreatment with poly-γ-glutamic acid (γ-PGA) enhanced salt tolerance of *B. napus* by improving Pro accumulation and increased total antioxidant capacity. Application of γ-PGA also inhibited the content of the oxidative stress indicators (MDA and H2O2), thus enhancing growth and development of plants [156]. Thus, scientists have evolved plenty of ways to mitigate the adverse effect of salt stress in oilseed *Brassica* sp. cultivation and found some efficient approaches to increase the yield by minimizing the oxidative damages and improving defensive responses.
