This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. By 2050 human population is expected to
reach 9.7 billion. The demand for increased food production needs to be met from ever reducing
resources of land water and other environmental constraints. Rice remains the staple food
source for a majority of the global populations but especially in Asia where ninety percent of
rice is grown and consumed. Climate change continues to impose abiotic and biotic stresses that
curtail rice quality and yields. Researchers have been challenged to provide innovative
solutions to maintain or even increase rice production. Amongst them the 'green super rice'
breeding strategy has been successful for leading the development and release of multiple
abiotic and biotic stress tolerant rice varieties. Recent advances in plant molecular biology
and biotechnologies have led to the identification of stress responsive genes and signaling
pathways which open up new paradigms toaugment rice productivity. Accordingly transcription
factors protein kinases and enzymes for generating protective metabolites and proteins all
contribute to an intricate network of events that guard and maintain cellular integrity. In
addition various quantitative trait loci associated with elevated stress tolerance have been
cloned resulting in the detection of novel genes for biotic and abiotic stress resistance.
Mechanistic understanding of the genetic basis of traits such as N and P use is allowing rice
researchers to engineer nutrient-efficient rice varieties which would result in higher yields
with lower inputs. Likewise the research in micronutrients biosynthesis opens doors to genetic
engineering of metabolic pathways to enhance micronutrients production. With third generation
sequencing techniques on the horizon exciting progress can be expected to vastly improve
molecular markers for gene-trait associations forecast with increasing accuracy. This book
emphasizes on the areas of rice science that attempt to overcome the foremost limitations in
rice production. Our intention is to highlight research advances in the fields of physiology
molecular breeding and genetics with a special focus on increasing productivity improving
biotic and abiotic stress tolerance and nutritional quality of rice.
