Management Strategies to Mitigate Drought Stress in Crops

Agriculture is subject to significant challenges due to the high population, corresponding increases in food demand and limited arable land, as well as many vital and non-vital pressures, which continue to affect agricultural productivity. Drought as a non-vital stress is one of the most serious challenges facing sustainable agriculture, resulting in a significant lack of crop productivity. Drought is a natural phenomenon that is released and sustained over a long period due to insufficient availability of fresh water for human needs and ecosystems. Drought stress has become a major challenge for agriculture around the world, posing a major threat to food security as well as to the growth and productivity of major crops. Drought is often accompanied by adverse effects leading to many physiological and morphological changes. Water stress works on vital changes, including accumulation of Abscisic acid and proline, which leads to wilting, at which point it will be a higher consumption of oxygen gas and formation of ascorbate and glutathione compounds that increase the negative impact on growth and plant cell composition.