## 1 Introduction  
Climate change is currently a serious threat with negative consequences for agricultural systems. High temperatures, drought, and rising sea levels are leading to a decrease in biodiversity and deteriorate soil erosion. Furthermore, one of the biggest threats to global food security is the expansion of agricultural lands with high levels of salt concentration due to climate change. Around the world, soil salinization affects about 6% of the cultivated area and continues to add 1% to 2% of land deterioration per year, resulting in large losses in staple grain crop yields [1]. This creates uncertainty and conditions of food insecurity, urging researchers to improve the design of agricultural systems and adapt agricultural practices and varieties to the new reality to enhance resilience to climate change [2, 3, 4, 5]. Researchers suggest that crop adaptation to the new environmental conditions should be based on agroecology, reconnecting local production with food consumption through the recovery of locally produced products [6] and promoting the use of legumes for maintaining the sustainability of agricultural systems [7]. Biological and environmental factors have shaped the genetic diversity of local populations [8], giving them perfect adaptability to the environment in which they grow [9] and therefore constitute valuable genetic material that can be used to improve the resilience of cultivated species [10; 11]. Many studies on plant adaptation to new conditions include crop landraces that were previously underutilized, had limited global economic value, and gained little attention for improvement. Thus, they were called \"orphan crops\", such as grass pea (_Lathyrus sativus_ L.) [12; 13]. _Lathyrus sativus_ is a legume adapted to Mediterranean cropping systems and even to marginal environments. It is cultivated for human consumption, animal feed and fodder. It is resistant to biotic and abiotic stress, while its high protein content makes it a valuable crop for farmers; therefore, it has gained the attention of researchers [14; 15; 16; 17; 18; 19]. Research on its tolerance to salinity conditions is ongoing and multifaceted. A study by [PERSON] et al. [20] on in vitro cultivation of genotypes from different countries showed high biomass and increased tolerance of calli and young seedlings of Greek genotypes of _Lathyrus sativus_ at 125 mM NaCl. Experiments on pots showed that _Lathyrus sativus_ demonstrated good germination subjected to 150 mM NaCl [21] while others indicate that, for some varieties of grass pea, 120 mM NaCl is a threshold for tolerance to salinity [22]. Several studies also incorporate improved seed treatment technologies before sowing (priming) such as hydropriming, biopriming and specifically the inoculation of plants with the bacterium _Bacillus subtilis_, which provide significant advantages to plants such as improved germination rates, uniform growth, vigor of young seedlings, resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses [23; 24; 25; 26; 27; 28; 29; 30; 31; 32; 33; 34] as well as better yield [35; 36; 37; 38]. Several researchers recognize salinity as a serious environmental problem and report that exploiting the properties of Plant Growth Promoting Bacteria (PGPR) could help address the problem as a low-cost biological method with long-term use. These halotolerant bacteria produce specific compounds that aid crops in adjusting to high salts and encourage their growth [39; 40]. Despite the advantages of using PGPRs, researchers should study and find the appropriate balance between stimulating seed metabolism and decreasing the undesirable side effects they may cause [41]. A study by [PERSON] et al. [42] evaluated different seed biofortification techniques in terms of crop productivity, resource efficiency, cost-benefit balance, and environmental impacts. Researchers' experiments on wheat, rice, chickpea, and bean under high salinity conditions showed that inoculation with rhizobacteria of the genus _Bacillus_ sp.