Modern tools in improving rice production

Abstract Rice is an agronomically important crop and is cultivated worldwide. The increasing world population demands greater food supply, which can be guaranteed only by improving the rice crop yield. Although conventional breeding approaches have contributed to enhanced crop production in the last decades, new tools and techniques are needed for further improvement in the rice crop yield to fulfill the rising demand for food in the next decades. In this chapter, we provide an overview of recent developments in enhancing rice production using bioinformatics tools, genome-wide association studies, molecular markers, genome editing tools, and recent advances in incorporating C4 photosynthesis features in rice plants. Finally, we discuss the role of an important signaling cascade, the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade, in improving the rice yield.