Vol. 11, Special Issue 9 (2022)

Author(s):
Rajwinder Kaur and Dr. Harmeet Singh Janeja

Abstract:
Drought stress is a severe limiting factor in rice production, resulting in enormous economic losses. It becomes a more serious problem in terms of global climate change. Current and projected global food demands make it important to prioritize increasing crop productivity in drought-prone, rainfed regions. Drought-tolerant rice cultivars are needed to achieve production targets from rain-fed areas, and genetic improvement of drought-tolerant rice should be a priority research topic in the future. Breeding of drought-tolerant rice cultivars is a thoughtful task, as the complex nature of drought-tolerant traits and multigene regulation are major bottlenecks in current research. Over the past two decades, significant progress has been made in understanding the mechanisms involved in adaptation and tolerance to drought stress in rice. This review highlighted recent advances in the physiological, biochemical, and molecular adaptations of rice to drought tolerance. A brief discussion of molecular genetics and breeding approaches for drought tolerance in rice focuses on future crop improvement programs to develop drought-tolerant rice cultivars.