Innovation in drought-resilient agriculture: The rise of aerobic rice system

Rice, one of the world's most widely consumed crops, is extensively grown in irrigated lowland ecosystems. As a 2 °C climate-warming scenario is projected to cause average crop losses up to 13 % and make drought a major constraint for rice production, it is critical to explore innovative alternatives to lowland rice-based production systems, notably the aerobic rice system, which has the potential to reduce water use in rice farming by 20 %–50 %. While drought tolerance in rice has been extensively studied, the literature on innovations, particularly the integration of breeding, transgenic, and omics approaches, is relatively scattered and fragmented. In view of this, this review provides a comprehensive overview of the existing knowledge and gaps in sustaining rice production under drought stress in a rapidly changing climate, where breeding efforts for drought tolerant rice development remain challenging because of the complex genetic basis of drought tolerance traits. Furthermore, this review discusses why and how an eco-efficient aerobic rice system can be regarded as the key alternative to strengthening the faltering global rice production systems, as well as providing insights into the future directions of sustainable rice farming to feed the expanding population sustainably. We conclude that aerobic rice utilization should be widened, as an integral part of the solution to enhance rice production sustainability in a hotter and drier future.