A Dual Strategy of Rice: Breeding for Drought Tolerance & Desert Greening

Understanding the connection between climate change and desertification is crucial for mitigating their impact and preserving the planet’s resources. Breeding drought-tolerant rice plays a key role in combating desertification and ensuring food security. This can be achieved through various techniques, including conventional breeding methods that generate genetic variation and introduce new drought-tolerant traits. Our approach promotes the re-vegetation of arid regions for ecological restoration, biodiversity enhancement, and sustainable farming — especially in vulnerable areas where climate change threatens food security.In this book, we present a strategy to increase drought-stress tolerance by using natural genes that have evolved over time and are preserved in rice varieties. Through conventional breeding, these traits are combined with other desirable agronomic and nutritional characteristics and integrated into existing cropping systems to improve their resilience to water scarcity and support desert greening.