Drought effects and water use efficiency: improving crop production in dry environments

Abstract

Abstract. There is global concern over our capacity to feed a rapidly growing world population against a background of climate change and a shortage of renewable resources for agriculture. To address this challenge, sustainable intensification of crop production will be required to deliver increased yields with decreased environmental side effects, while maintaining the land area under cultivation. We must exploit new understanding in the science of crop production, in order to achieve both an improvement of crops and more effective agro-ecological management. The focus of this short article and the following papers that make up a research front on drought effects and water use efficiency is on science for the development of crops and cropping systems for water scarce environments. Both increases in drought resistance and efficiency of water use will be required in the major cropping regions of the world where water is already a significant limiting factor.

Activity of the Arabidopsis RD29A and RD29B promoter elements in soybean under water stress

“…Plant genetic engineering provides an approach to improve drought resistance in crops via the introduction of transgene(s) to mitigate physiological and thus agronomic penalties associated with drought. The goal would be to create plant genotypes that produce more ''crop per drop'' under rain fed and irrigated production environments (Chaves and Davies 2010;Mahajan and Tuteja 2005;Manavalan et al 2009). …”

Leaf recovery responses during rehydration after water deficit in two bean (Phaseolus vulgarisL.) cultivars

“…In fact, increase in drought tolerance and efficiency in water usage will be necessary for major agricultural regions of the world, where water availability is already a significant limiting factor (Chaves & Davies 2010). Krasensky and Jonak (2012) mentioned that plant stress responses are dynamic and involve complex cross-talk between different regulatory levels, including adjustment of metabolism and gene expression for physiological and morphological adaptation.…”

Vandenyje tirpių angliavandenių kaupimasis kviečio žiedynkotyje ir jų ryšys su morfoanatominiais bei produktyvumo požymiais

“…Extreme climate events (such as drought and/or heat stress) during the reproductive growth stage of wheat can lead to significant reduction in yield and quality (Chaves, Davies, 2010). Therefore, improving tolerance to stress conditions during this stage is necessary to contribute to sustained grain yield of wheat in a future drier and warmer climate.…”