Water stress is arguably the most hazardous natural stress factor in the current and future climate changes and hence tolerance to water stress in crops is possibly one of the most valuable of agricultural characteristics. With increasing intensity and duration of the droughts, improving the understanding and resilience to drought has assumed importance for food security. To connect with the review topic, the advances in physiological mechanisms, genetics, genomic and related approaches, and managing strategies towards drought tolerance in crops are highlighted. In plants, there are several strategies that are recognized to exist in coping with drought conditions including increasing WUE and osmotic potential and changing the photosynthetic rates. Drought tolerance mechanisms also include signaling mechanism by abscisic acid (ABA) to indicate drought response and also root adaptive mechanisms. Conventional breeding owns the initial framework for the improvement of drought tolerant varieties at genetic level, while molecular breeding, marker assisted selection (MAS), genetic engineering and transgenic have speed up this progress. The application of new technologies during the post-genomic period and the study of epigenetic changes have expanded the knowledge during the past decade and bred more efficient techniques. Conservation and management of water, effective use of soil, use of bio stimulants and plant growth regulators, agro forestry and mixed farming is important in order to reduce the effect of drought on crops.

Keywords: Drought Tolerance, Crop Resilience, Root Adaptations, Genetic Engineering, Agroforestry, Genomic Selection.