Stress Tolerant Plants - Efforts are also underway for the development of plants resistant to abiotic stresses, through the use of techniques of tissue culture and genetic engineering. Salinity, acidity and aluminium toxicity are the most important among these abiotic stresses. Cell lines exhibiting resistance or relative tolerance to salt stress have been selected in a large number of plant species and can be used for plantation on degraded lands suffering with salinity. These plant species include the following: Brassica spp., Capsicum annuum, Cicer arietinum, Citrus aurantium, C. sinensis, Daucus carota, Hordeum jubatum, H. vulgare, Nicotiana tabacum, N. sylvestris, Oryza sativa, Prunus hybrids, Solanum tuberosum, Triticum aestivum, Vitis rupestris and Sapindus trifoliata

In vitro selection for tolerance to aluminium toxicity has also been successful in tomato, soybean, rice, barley, and wheat. Regenerants of selected lines can be used for growing plants in acidic soils with aluminium toxicity. Man made synthetic crop 'triticale' has also be found suitable for growing it (i) on acid soils in countries like Poland, Kenya, Ethiopia, India, Ecuador, Brazil, Mexico, etc.; (ii) on dry and sandy soils (e.g. Savanna region of Brazil and some marginal lands in Asia); (iii) on alkaline and calcareous soils (e.g. in Mexico, Spain, Portugal, USA) and (iv) on mineral (e.g. Cu, Mn, Zn) deficient and high boron soils (e.g. Australia ). In China, a number of new varieties of rice, wheat and tobacco have been developed through anther culture, some of them showing stress resistance with broad adaptability. For instance, rice cultivars Zhong Hua 10 and Zhong Hua 11 have a high degree of drought resistance and have been planted on more than 1, 30, 000 hectares of land in China.