## 1 Introduction  
It is understood that a rapid climate change is taking place worldwide with alarming environmental and economic implications, notably, sea-level and temperature rise, an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme climate events, such as droughts, floods, and storms, resulting in water and land salinity variation [1]. Simultaneously, it is predicted that by 2050 the world population will reach 9.7 billion, and consequently, global food demand is expected to increase by 35% to 56%, and freshwater demands for irrigation are predicted to increase by 19% [2]. Moreover, an estimated 33% of the world's irrigated agricultural lands are suffering from high soil salinity a reduction of 1 to 2% of the agricultural area every year [3, 4]. Soil salinization reduces crop yields and can affect the performance of other ecosystems services. This often-neglected continuous degradation is exacerbated by inadequate agricultural and water management practices [5]. These aspects impose severe salinity-induced constraints on crop yield worldwide, thus causing major socioeconomic costs and a probable impact on future global food security [6]. Current research has to aim at identifying and testing potential solutions to meet future agricultural demands. Usually, salt stress is significantly limiting productivity of plants,upsetting every major crop development and productivity. Most of the world's cash crop plants, when exposed to a NaCl concentration from 40 mM to 200 mM, become severely damaged, and most do not survive [7]. On the other hand, and in contrast, halophytes can not only survive but also thrive and be highly productive under these same saline conditions. Halophytes, which constitute about 1% of the Earth's flora, are defined as plant species that can grow and reproduce under salinity concentrations of over 200 mM NaCl [8]. These plants are known to have an important role in the stability and protection of coastal and wetland habitats, maintaining ecological stability, and providing various and unique globally relevant ecological and economic services. They also have enormous potential to aid soil restoration, water purification, and agricultural development [9]. Phytoremediation in saline-sodic soils was found to be an inexpensive solution to regulate environments and is found to be a potential substitute for chemical amelioration [10]. In line with this approach, several halophyte species can remove, transfer, or stabilize salt, metals, pharmaceutical products, pesticides, cyanotoxins, and nanoparticles from the soil and groundwater in an efficient, low-cost, easy-to-use, and eco-friendly way [11]. Furthermore, increasing demand for irrigation along with a growing demand for improved agricultural practices makes it obvious that there is a need for sustainable crop production. The use of seawater irrigation for biomass production is a strategy to cope with the loss of arable land and available water resources. However, this proposes the growth of halophytes as a sustainable edible crop (cash crops) [12]. _Halimione portulacoides_ (L) [PERSON] is a halophyte that is a good candidate for such an approach. It is one of the most widely spread and abundant species found in the Mediterranean marshes, a C3 succulent that belongs to the Amaranthaceae family [13; 14]. Moreover, this species was previously used in biosaline agriculture and salinized soil reclamation, displaying an added-value nutritional profile [15], which reinforces its potential application and the usefulness of a potential improvement of its tolerance throughout bioaugmentation approaches. Plant-growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) are beneficial soil bacteria that by mutualistic interactions directly and/or indirectly improves plant growth and development [16]. It has been shown that PGPR, as well as microbial endophytes, facilitate stress resistance and tolerance mechanisms by a wide spectrum of mechanisms [17; 18].