Plant Adaptation to Environmental Stresses: A Key Challenge to Rice Food Security

Environmental stress represents the most limiting factor to food productivity. Not only do they impact the crops being cultivated, but they also hinder other agricultural crops from being introduced for production to areas that are not currently being used for agriculture. One major problem in global agriculture is the significant fluctuations in annual crop yields due to the unpredictable and varying environmental stresses (e.g., drought, flooding, salinity, and high temperature). Accordingly, environmental stresses are often characterized by the simultaneous occurrence of more than one stress. Thus, drought is often associated with high temperature, salinity, and flooding with ion toxicity. In urban environments, air pollutants are often associated with high temperature and low intercepted radiation with the occurrence of haze. Managing these environmental stress elements would significantly contribute to the goal of attaining sustainable agriculture. Any contribution that would help to understand such factors and to manage environmental stress will be highly significant in many years to come. Â