Perspective of barley drought tolerance; methods and mechanisms comparable to other cereals

Despite recent agricultural advances, climate play key role in today's agricultural production. In fact, due to the recent climate change yield of many crops reduce marginally, especially due to the temperature increase, uncertainty of monsoon and uneven distribution of precipitation. Barley is one hope to mitigate these challenges as possess natural potential which is not common in most of the cereals and its wild relatives also. It is also alternate flour to wheat (especially hull less barley varieties). Barley is C₃ plant, the layer of green grain i.e. pericarp, in particular act as C₄ photosynthesis and hence contribute more as comparable to other cereals as in peri carp of barley large amount of carbon fixation takes place due to PEP carboxylase. Barley possesses all the physiological, morphological and biochemical traits to withstand during water stress. New germplasm and molecular tools make it possible to develop better variety faster for drought or salinity tolerance, but challenges still remain due to complexity of drought and salinity tolerance. The mechanism of drought tolerance can best studied under the heading of barley. In this paper, we will review progress on drought and saline tolerance in barley.