Enhanced Resilience to Salt Stress: An IntegratedApproach Addressing Physiochemical Attributesof Wheat (<i>Triticum aestivum</i> L.)

Salinity stress exerts a deleterious impact on crop growth, presenting a formidable challenge to sustainable agriculture, because of the prevalence of salt-affected arable land globally.The present investigation focused on mitigating the adverse effects of salinity on Triticum aestivum L. and employed integrated physical, chemical, and biological amendments, which were denoted as treatments T1 to T8.The findings unveiled higher pH, EC, and Na + concentrations in the topsoil compared to the subsoil within the selected saline field.In comparison to the control treatment (T1), the combined application of gypsum, farmyard manure, and ridges (T8) demonstrated a significant enhancement in agronomic traits, chlorophyll contents, and total protein in wheat.Notably, T8 exhibited the lowest Na + concentration and the highest levels of K + , Mg 2+ , Ca 2+ , and Mg 2+ compared to all other treatments.Furthermore, the amalgamation of two reclamation approaches (T5, T6, and T7) surpassed single amendments (T2, T3, and T4) in terms of both agronomic traits and ionic analysis.Treatment T8 displayed the lowest phytochemical contents (i.e., antioxidant activity) in wheat, as indicated by total phenolic and flavonoid content, ferric and molybdate ion reduction, DPPH, and hydroxyl scavengers.These parameters exhibited a positive association in descending order, with 80.6%, 86.9%, 82.2%, 73%, 86%, and 84.5% in T1 and 71.4%, 81.2%, 73.4%, 68.1%, 79.3%, and 78.5% in T8, respectively.The observed alterations resulting from the combinations of amendments present promising targets, rendering them prospective in enabling wheat plants to successfully acclimatize to saline soil conditions.