Advancements in Water-Saving Strategies and Crop Adaptation to Drought: A Comprehensive Review

Abstract

Drought stress, which is one of the most critical environmental constraints affecting global crop productivity, is exacerbated by climate change and increased atmospheric water demand. This review comprehensively examines plant responses to drought, integrating physiological, morphological, biochemical, and genetic adaptations that contribute to water-use efficiency and stress tolerance. Key mechanisms such as osmotic adjustment, stomatal regulation, antioxidant defense, and hormonal signaling are analyzed, highlighting their role in mitigating drought-induced cellular damage. Advances in plant breeding and biotechnological approaches, including transgenic strategies, genome editing, and marker-assisted selection, are discussed in the context of improving drought resilience. The importance of root system architecture, leaf anatomical modifications, and stress-responsive transcription factors is underscored as essential components of drought adaptation. Additionally, agronomic innovations such as precision irrigation, soil management techniques, and plant-microbe interactions are reviewed due to their potential to enhance sustainable water use in agriculture. The role of epigenetic modifications and long-distance signaling mechanisms in drought acclimation is explored, shedding light on emerging strategies for engineering multi-stress tolerant crops. Furthermore, we assess the impact of drought on crop nutritional quality, the trade-offs between drought tolerance and pest resistance, and the socio-economic implications of water scarcity on global food security. This review provides a roadmap for integrating cutting-edge scientific knowledge with practical agricultural applications, aiming to develop resilient cropping systems capable of sustaining productivity under increasingly unpredictable climatic conditions.

Keywords: agriculture technologies; climate change; crop production; drought stress; global warming; modern farming; plant breeding; plant resilience; soil management; sustainable agriculture.

FIGURE 1

Schematic representation of the main aspects of Chapter 1 (Physiological and morphological adaptations to cope with drought) and Chapter 2 (Mechanisms and approaches to enhance drought tolerance: Molecular, transcriptional, and genetic perspectives). E, Environment; GMO, genetically modified organisms; G, genotype; P, phenotype; g _s, stomatal conductance; TFs, transcription factors; WUE, water‐use efficiency. Parts of the images were fully provided with permission from J.D. Franco‐Navarro's thesis (Franco‐Navarro 2022). Sources: Most elements of this scheme were created with BioRender.com (CC‐BY 4.0 license).

FIGURE 2

Challenges associated with the complexity of abiotic stresses and the breeding for drought tolerance. Source: (Bassi et al. ; Esmaeili et al. ; Mittler ; Ye et al. ; Zhao, Gao, An, et al. ; Zhao, Duan, et al. ; Zilberman et al. 2018). Most elements of this scheme were created with BioRender.com (CC‐BY 4.0 license).

FIGURE 3

Scheme of main macronutrients and trendy beneficial nutrients (Chapter 3, Plant nutrition, trendy beneficial nutrients, and biofortification). (macronutrients) Ca, Ca²⁺, Calcium; Mg, Mg²⁺, magnesium; N, N${\mathrm{O}}_3^{-},$nitrogen/nitrate; P, P${\mathrm{O}}_4^{2-},$phosphorus/phosphate; S, S${\mathrm{O}}_4^{3-},$sulphur/sulphate (Hawkesford et al. ; Kudoyarova et al. ; Kumari et al. ; Maathuis ; Waraich et al. 2011); (micro and beneficial macronutrient) Cl, Cl⁻, chloride (Colmenero‐Flores et al. ; Franco‐Navarro et al. ; Franco‐Navarro et al. ; Franco‐Navarro et al. ; Lucas et al. ; Peinado‐Torrubia et al. ; Rosales et al. ; Rosales et al. 2020b); (biofortification with beneficial nutrients) B, H₃BO₃/[B(OH)₄]⁻, boron (Haque ; Ramirez‐Builes et al. 2024); Se, [SeO₃]²⁻, selenium (Abdalla et al. ; Moulick et al. 2024); Si, [SiO₃]²⁻, silicon (Abdalla et al. ; Irfan et al. 2023); Zn, Zn²⁺, zinc (Semida, Abdelkhalik, et al. ; Stanton et al. 2022); CAT, catalase; WUE, WUEi, intrinsic; g _m, mesophyll conductance to CO₂ diffusion; A _N, net photosynthetic rate; NUE, nitrogen use efficiency; Qy(PSII), quantum yield, PSII efficiency; RWC, relative water content; ROS, reactive oxygen species; g _S, stomatal conductance; SOD, superoxide dismutase; WC, water content; WUE, water‐use efficiency. Source: Most elements of this scheme were created with BioRender.com (CC‐BY 4.0 license).

FIGURE 4

Schematic representation of the main aspects of Chapter 4 (Soil management and conservation practices) and Chapter 5 (Advancements in precision irrigation: Technological innovations and efficient strategies for sustainable water management). Some of the equipment shown are following: Deficit irrigation techniques (Laita et al. 2024); dendrometer DRL26D; HIDRO VT GZO40‐EPS professional ozone (O₃) generator (Zonosistem, El Puerto de Santa María, Spain, https://www.zonosistem.com/); high resolution band dendrometers for trees and plants (DB‐60); ICT leaf and canopy temperature sensor (SKU‐IOT); leaf gas exchange and photosystem II fluorescence analyser (Li‐6800 portable photosynthesis system); Microneedle sensors (Wang, Molinero‐Fernández, et al. 2024); PSY1 psychrometer (stem & leaf) for plant Ψ_w (Ψ_w,leaf and Ψ_w,stem); real‐time measurement of leaf turgor using the non‐invasive magnetic leaf patch‐clamp pressure probes (Zimmermann et al. 2008); Schölander chamber for plant Ψ_w (Model 1000). Source: Parts of the images were fully provided with permission from J.D. Franco‐Navarro's thesis (Franco‐Navarro 2022). Most elements of this scheme were created with BioRender.com (CC‐BY 4.0 license).