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Rice is sensitive to moisture stress and in view of the water scarcity in the coming years, it is imperative to evaluate the performance of rice cultivars under moisture deficit conditions particularly at critical stages like panicle initiation and soft dough stage. This book highlights drought induced changes in endogenous level of plant hormones, sugar and protein contents in leaves and grains along with other physiological parameters such as stomatal resistance. The studies also revealed that ABA treatments could ameliorate the adverse effects of drought stress for most of the physiological parameters but were ineffective to restore the drought-induced decrease in GA content. Interestingly, on re-watering, the recovery of pre-stressed plants enhanced under ABA seed soaking and foliar spray. The analysis of results revealed that mechanism of ABA-induced tolerance to drought stress appears to be involved in maintenance of water budget by decreasing GA, increasing stomatal resistance and proline accumulation, and enhanced grain filling to bring early maturity. Importantly, this book covers the physiological responses of two diverse rice cultivars i.e.fine and coarse

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