Effects of Drought Stress on Crop Production and Productivity
Temesgen Begna, S Ahmad, R Ahmad, M Ashraf, M Ashraf, E Waraich, J Araus, D Villegas, N Aparicio, L Del Moral, S El Hani, Y Rharrabti, J Ferrio, C Royo, F Arjenaki, R Jabbari, A Morshedi, R Auge, E Kubikova, Moore, M Baque, A Karim, H Hamid, Tetsushi, R Beena, Thandapani, R Chandrababu, R Bhatt, N Srinivasa Rao, A Blum, M Chaves, M Oliveira, K Chen, R Arora, B Cook, R Miller, R Seager, M Farooq, A Wahid, N Kobayashi, D Fujita, S Basra, M Farooq, S Basra, A Wahid, Z Cheema, M Cheema, A Khaliq, G Farquhar, S Wong, J Evans, K Hubick, A Fathi, D Tari, D Gaff, T Gaspar, T Franck, B Bisbis, C Kevers, L Jouve, J Hausman, J Dommes, T Girish, T Gireesha, M Vaishali, B Hanamareddy, S Hittalmani, M Hoerling, J Hurrell, J Eischeid, A Phillips, Y Hu, U Schmidhalter, C Jaleel, P Manivannan, G Lakshmanan, M Gomathinayagam, R Panneerselvam, C Jaleel, P Manivannan, P Murali, M Gomathinayagam, R Panneerselvam, T Kavar, M Maras, M Kidric, J Sustar-Vozlic, V Meglic, S Kumar, S Dwivedi, S Singh, S Jha, S Lekshmy, R Elanchezhian, O Singhand, B Bhatt, W Larcher, H Lichtenthaler, C Buschmann, M Doll
Abstract
Stress is a change of the normal growth, development and productivity of crop plants and that is outside the normal range of homeostatic control. Among stresses, abiotic stress is caused due to moisture, temperature, mineral (deficiency/toxicity), salinity, soil acidity/soil P H. Drought is the primary cause of crop yield loss among abiotic factors around the world. It is a major problem in world, leading to food shortages and is a challenge for small-holder farmers to produce enough crop grain when rainfall is low and erratic. Climate change is the main cause of biotic and abiotic stresses, which have adverse effects the world's crop production and productivity. Crop production is determined by the existence of sufficient rain fall, especially in areas where crop production is totally relied on rain fall, there is always risk of crop failure or yield loss due to moisture stress. In severe cases, the stress could lead to total crop loss. This day, increasing crop yield is required to meet the needs of increasing population growth, however yield reduction is observed in areas where drought is predominantly devastated crop production. Short duration drought stress mostly reduces grain yield while prolonged drought stress leads to complete death of plant. Drought stress occurs at different stages of growth and adversely affect yield and yield related traits, which lead to reduction in yield. The effect of drought stress is mainly depending on the developmental stage of the plant, degree and duration of the stress, genotypic capacity of species and environmental interactions. Crop plants have adaptation strategies to survive under drought stress by the development of various morphological, physiological and biochemical mechanisms. However, a plant may exhibit more than one strategy to cope with drought stress. Drought resistance is the mechanism(s) causing minimum loss of yield in a drought condition. Drought escape, dehydration avoidance, reduced transpiration or physiological factors are some drought resistance mechanisms. Drought resistant genotypes maintain high photosynthesis under moisture stress condition by restricting transpiration water loss. Finally, the global food security is threatened by climate change and the most challenging in the 21 st century to supply sufficient food for the increasing world population. The use of well adapted and high-yielding varieties with resistance to drought stress is important to reach maximum yield potential as long as possible through minimizing the risk of climate change. Climate-smart agriculture is the only way to reduce the negative impact of climate variations on crop adaptation, before it might affect global crop production drastically.