Abstract <p>Water shortage is becoming one of the global challenges and it is seriously threatening agricultural productivity and food security. Since freshwater availability for agriculture is declining and climate change impacts have increased, crop plants need to be made more water-use efficient and stress tolerant. Enhancing water productivity is among the most effective measures to grow more crop per drop, which means the amount of crop yield produced per unit of water applied. Enhancing water productivity in plants can be achieved with multidisciplinary approaches like physiology, genetic and agronomic developments. Stomatal conductance, root-shoot structure and canopy design are the key physiological factors that influence water productivity. Stomatal system governs the absorption of carbon dioxide and loss of water through transpiration and therefore, is a potential candidate for genetic manipulation in view of increasing water productivity. Likewise, there exists the scope of well-defined root system facilitating uptake of water from deep soil layers; and an improved canopy structure providing effective absorption of light for the photosynthetic process and reduction of water loss. Phytotechnology, revolutionized by developments like gene-editing technology enable scientists to create water-efficient crops in a shorter span of time and with greater ease than they can do using conventional breeding techniques. Furthermore, plants of dry areas and drought-tolerant species offer useful information on mechanisms of enhancing water productivity. Therefore, by taking advantage of physiological interventions through biotechnological tools scientists can develop new plant types possessing high yield in the context of declining freshwater resources to achieve world’s food security.</p>