“…Thus, new techniques are urgently needed to mitigate the effect of DS on crop growth without compromising yield production. Photosynthetic efficiency, leaf photosynthesis, and carbon assimilation are the most important metabolic processes for regulating plant growth and development but are sensitive under environmental constraints, especially DS (Hüther et al, 2022; Jin et al, 2022; Pandey et al, 2022; Ullah et al, 2022). Inhibited photosynthesis is a primary physiological consequence of DS to stomatal closure (Anjum, Wang, Farooq, Xue, & Ali, 2011; Anjum, Wang, Farooq, Xue, & Hussain, 2011; Khalvandi et al, 2021), impaired photochemical apparatus (Pandey et al, 2022), chlorophyll degradation (Begum et al, 2022; Farooq, Nawaz, Chaudhry, Indrasti, et al, 2017, Farooq, Nawaz, Chaudhry, & Rehman, 2017) and reduced intercellular CO 2 (Han, Zhang, Du, et al, 2022; Ullah et al, 2021).…”