Abiotic Stress Physiology of Rice: An Updated Overview in the Era of Climate Change

Abstract

Abiotic stresses pose a serious threat to rice production globally. Under the present climate change scenarios, the poor and marginal farmers particularly from rainfed agro-ecologies (rainfed upland, shallow lowland and lowland) are compelled to bear a frequent heavy toil due uncertain weather events. Among different abiotic stresses, rice crop is vulnerable to severe drought, excess water in terms of complete or partial submergence and anaerobic germination, salinity, high and low temperature, along with lowlight stresses. Identification of unique germplasm/ landraces and understanding the underlying tolerance mechanism in them is of immense importance in today’s context. Characterization of these unique genotypes for morpho-physiological and key molecular traits is required to identify secondary traits contributing to stress tolerance and enhanced yield under unfavourable growing conditions. Hence, identification of suitable donor and secondary/putative traits is the need of the hour to develop climate resilient rice cultivars.