<p>Salinization reduces crop productivity in irrigated drylands and coastal zones through coupled processes that begin with reduced water availability and progress to ion injury, nutrient imbalance, and oxidative damage. Many classification criteria classify soil as saline when the electrical conductivity of the saturated soil extract exceeds 4 dS per m at 25&#xa0;°C. Recent field-based assessments in salt affected production systems frequently report yield losses greater than 20%, reflecting constraints on photosynthesis and reproduction under spatially and temporally variable salinity. This review integrates physiological and biochemical responses to salinity with insights from multi-omics approaches, including transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics. These studies reveal key tolerance mechanisms, such as ion homeostasis mediated by high-affinity potassium transporters and salt overly sensitive pathways, osmotic adjustment involving accumulation of proline and glycine betaine, maintenance of redox balance, and regulation through hormonal signaling. It also evaluates translation pathways that use genome wide association studies, marker assisted selection, and CRISPR-Cas9, alongside synthetic biology approaches for assembling stress responsive trait modules. Research gaps encompass limited reproducibility of omics data due to experimental variations, insufficient field validation of lab traits, yield trade-offs in non-stress conditions, complexities of polygenic inheritance for multi-locus stacking, genotype-by-environment interactions, and regulatory plus socio-economic barriers. Overcoming these via integrated multi-omics, high-throughput phenotyping, multi-environment trials, and equitable tool access is vital for resilient varieties sustaining productivity in expanding saline areas.</p> Graphical Abstract <p></p>