Dry land millets: A review of its drought tolerance

Drought is one of the major abiotic stresses affecting plant growth and reducing crop productivity, which has been estimated to affect 70% of crop yield.Tolerance to abiotic stresses is very complex, due to the intricate of interactions between stress factors and various molecular, biochemical and physiological phenomena affecting plant growth and development. Millets are hardy plants capable of growing where most other grain cereals would fail. In the present review, strategies used to adapt to drought stress and the damages caused at physiological, biochemical and molecular level are described. This review also describes drought tolerant varieties and genes identified in millet species and their performance in transgenic crops. The tolerance exhibited by hybrids of drought resistant landraces and high yielding elite germplasm is also included. It is concluded that a combination of transgenic breeding, marker assisted breeding and conventional breeding will be necessary for imparting tolerance to combat drought in future.