Four Species with Crop Potential in Saline Environments: The SALAD Project Case Study

With sea levels rising due to climate change, salinity intrusion will increase and new crops, specifically appropriate to such particular ecological conditions, are needed. In the project "SALAD--Saline Agriculture as a Strategy to Adapt to Climate Change", the possibility of growing tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), potato (Solanum tuberosum), quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa), and New Zealand spinach (Tetragonia tetragonioides) in saline conditions is explored, together with their market upscaling opportunity. The crops are described in terms of their origin and distribution, botanical description and edible use. Moreover, the state of the art of the four crops' response under saline conditions is reviewed.