Rice is life for almost half of the global population and majority of the Indian people. The living and livelihood of majority of the Indian farming population also depends on growing rice. Rice production increased almost three fold over the last five decades and contributes handsomely to the nutritional security of the country. While green revolution brought productivity increase and regional food surpluses as far as rice is concerned and it also created huge negative environmental footprints. Climatic change casts a huge shadow in the horizon of agricultural productivity.
Further, there are reports that erratic monsoon behavior also affects the grain production, especially in rainfed areas which occupy 62% of the total rice area of the country. A variety of factors including (i) declining yields and less land, water and labor (ii) effects of economic growth (iii) pressure on land use, and (iv) climate change, threatens future rice production. While on the brighter side, rice contains a tremendous array of genetic diversity that scientists have only just begun to explore. And this huge genetic diversity also empowers rice to remain productive in environments where most other crops would fail. Rice production systems are unique and the longevity of rice farming speaks for itself. In fact, given to itself, the overall environmental footprint for rice would remain only subtle.

1. Biotic and Abiotic Stress factors affecting crop yield 

Depending on the climatic conditions, traditional as well as semi-dwarf varieties suffer from various pests and diseases. Among pests yellow stem borer (Tryporyza incertulas), leaf folder (Cnaphal-chorosis medinals) and brown plant-hopper (Nilaparavatalugens) affect the crop to varying degrees. Bacterial leaf blight, blast, sheath blight and false smut not only reduce the gram yield but also severely impair the ‘grain quality. Necessary prophylactic measures, balanced nutrition and clean cultivation can help to reduce losses. Among the current new approaches viz. new plant type, hybrid rice and molecular techniques, hybrid rice approach seems to have potential as it gives minimum 10-15 % yield advantage over best commercially cultivated fixed variety. Despite hurdles on the seed front, hybrid rice is slowly but surely spreading across the country. Water is the most critical component of life support systems. In this context India shares about 16% of the global population but it has only 4% of the total water resource. The irrigation sector, which uses 83% of water, is the main consumer of this resource. The main water resources in India consist of precipitation on the Indian Territory – estimated to be around 4000 cubic kilometers per year (km3/year) – and Trans boundary flows, which it receives in its rivers and aquifers from the upper riparian countries.