Evaluating Heat Stress Impacts and Management Strategies in Rice: A Review

Abstract

Rice, a staple crop in Nepal and a critical component of the national economy has experienced  severe yield declines due to temperatures rise. This paper digs into numerous strategies to improve rice heat tolerance, analyzing the impact of heat stress on rice productivity and the mechanisms by which plants adapt. Elevated temperatures impair rice, particularly during the flowering stage, resulting in spikelet sterility and decreased yields. Early flowering to avoid high temperatures, panicle cooling through improved transpiration to reduce heat, and genetic modifications conferring heat tolerance are all important mechanisms for handling heat stress. Recent advances in genetic modification, sustainable agriculture practices, and agronomic techniques offer great promise for improving rice resilience to heat stress. Particularly, marker-assisted selection (MAS) and mutations that increase heat shock proteins (HSPs) play critical roles in developing heat-resistant rice variants. Furthermore, improvement in water management procedures and the application of growth regulators can dramatically reduce the detrimental effects of heat stress. This study underlines the crucial importance of current researches in incorporating stress-tolerance features into high-yielding rice cultivars and advancing genomic methods. Such efforts are critical for guaranteeing global food security in the face of climate change problems and sustaining rice output as temperatures rise.