Climate change has evolved from a subject of future speculation to an inconvenient reality of the present. Given the inseparable link of agriculture with climatic variables, impact of climate change on agriculture and food security has been at the forefront of the research and policy agenda in recent times. Climatic alteration in India is becoming fairly perceptible, and the changes are far more evident than in other parts of the country. As a result of climate change, extreme abiotic factors like high and low temperatures, droughts, salinity, osmotic stress, heavy rains, floods and frost damages are posing serious threats to rice production and also are detrimental for the farmers earning livelihood from rice cultivation. There is a dire need to frame strategies against these stresses, so that in order to cope with such impacts crop improvement will help in finding the sustainable and effective solution against the negative impact of climate change. Advancement in Molecular breeding will help in utilizing the inherent potential of wild species by generating abiotic tolerant lines through introgression. Large screening of tolerance in wild genotypes should be done with the help of molecular markers to identify the underlying QTLs/genes. With the development in the field of bioinformatics, DNA microarrays, mass spectrometry, RNA-Sequencing or other modern high-throughput genomic techniques, it is now feasible to decipher the underlying metabolic pathways through top down approach. The present paper provides an overview of the recent evidences, potential impacts of climate change on rice and also offers its mitigation strategy through crop improvement with special reference to northeast India.