ABSTRACT
Flooding devastates many crops because most plants were not evolved to cope with hypoxic situations. Waterlogging has increasingly become a major problem for rice-based cropping systems where the rhizosphere is partially saturated by irrigation water or monsoon. In Southeast Asia alone, about 15 percent of the total maize-growing area is affected by flooding. In crops such as rice grown on lowlands near riverbanks, flooding can completely submerge the whole plant for a few days to months. In general, flooding is defined as any situation with excess water. The impact of excess water on plant performance is crop-dependent and growth stage-dependent. Under such abrupt changes, their sessile nature forces plants to adapt, acclimate, and tolerate these suboptimum situations.
