Mitigating Drought Stress in Various Grain Crops: Strategies for Alleviation

Drought and heat are major challenges for crop growth and food production, aggravated by climate change. These stresses possess complex and cumulative impact on various aspects of plants, including their appearance, physiology, biochemistry, and genes, ultimately affecting their ability to perform photosynthesis. These environmental challenges are exacerbated by climate change like temperature fluctuations, light intensity, and low rainfall. Plants have evolved various mechanisms to cope with water scarcity, which can vary among different species. They adapt at the structural, physiological, and biochemical levels to survive and thrive in challenging conditions. Even mild drought and heat stress can significantly reduce crop yields. To enhance drought tolerance in plants, various strategies are employed, including traditional breeding techniques and modern molecular approaches like genomics. Cutting-edge technologies like transcriptomics, metabolomics, glycomics, proteomics, genomics, transcriptomics, and phenomics play a crucial role in improving cultivar resilience to stress. Methods like seed priming, growth hormone application, osmoprotectants, and the use of elements such as silicon, selenium, and potassium have proven effective in drought-prone conditions. Moreover, innovative approaches like leveraging beneficial microbes, hydrogels, nanoparticles, and genetic engineering can regulate antioxidant enzymes, maintain cellular balance, and mitigate the harmful effects of water stress. These advancements hold great promise for agriculture by boosting plant tolerance to drought. This chapter highlights recent progress in key areas related to enhancing plant tolerance to drought and heat. It offers insights into the physiological, biochemical, and genetic aspects of these stressors and discusses potential strategies to improve crop productivity.