ABSTRACT
Agriculture is one of the most climate-sensitive of all economic sectors. In many countries, such as in Moldova, the risks of climate change are an immediate and fundamental problem because the majority of the rural population depends either directly or indirectly on agriculture for their livelihoods (Sutton et al. 2013). Drought is one of the most severe natural hazard causing important environmental constraints limiting plant growth, development and crop yield with tremendous economic and societal impacts. It is a multidimensional stress affecting plants at various levels of their organization. “The effect of and plant response to drought at the whole plant and crop level is most complex because it reflects the integration of stress effects and responses at all underlying levels of organization over space and time” (Blum 1996).
