Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is an important food crop and requires larger amount of water throughout its life cycle as compared to other crops. Hence, water related stress cause severe threat to rice production. Drought is a major challenge limiting rice production. It affects rice at morphological (reduced germination, plant height, plant biomass, number of tillers, various root and leaf traits), physiological (reduced photosynthesis, transpiration, stomatal conductance, water use efficiency, relative water content, chlorophyll content, photosystem II activity, membrane stability, carbon isotope discrimination and abscisic acid content), biochemical (accumulation of osmoprotectant like proline, sugars, polyamines and antioxidants) and molecular (altered expression of genes which encode transcription factors and defence related proteins) levels and thereby affects its yield. To facilitate the selection or development of drought tolerant rice varieties, a thorough understanding of the various mechanisms that govern the yield of rice under water stress condition is a prerequisite. Thus, this review is focused mainly on recent information about the effects of drought on rice, rice responses as well as adaptation mechanisms to drought stress.
