Climate change and catastrophic events have contributed to rice shortages in several regions due to decreased water availability and soil salinization. Although not adapted to salt or drought stress, two commercial rice varieties achieved tolerance to these stresses by colonizing them with Class 2 fungal endophytes isolated from plants growing across moisture and salinity gradients.

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0014823

Independent India inherited a structure of landholdings characterised by heavy concentration of cultivable areas in the hands of relatively large absentee landowners, the excessive fragmentation of small landholdings, growing number of landless agricultural workers, and the lack of any generalised system of documentary evidence of landownership or tenancy.

During the late 1950s and early 1960s food deficits India has been requiring importation of 3 to 4 million tons of grain per year. However because of bad monsoons in 1965 and 1966, imports exploded unpwardly to 10 million tons, and India was in dire straits. It was during this period that, after three years of testing on experiment stations, the so-called high yielding Mexican wheat varieties, which had proven very interesting under experimental conditions, where considered as a possible way to break the worsening food deficit.

Wheat is one of the most important staple food crops of the world, occupying
17% (one-sixth) of crop acreage world wide, feeding about 40% (nearly half) of the world population and providing 20% (one-fifth) of total food calories and protein in human nutrition1. Global wheat production has been under threat in recent years from increasing demand and climate change.
 

Plant genetic resources (PGR) scientists now recognize the importance of shifting from a singular focus on conservation to a focus on both conservation and utilization of germplasm in order to meet future challenges.