**6.1 Mitigating against drought and erratic rainfall**

Breeding of drought tolerant lines can effectively address frequent droughts problem in rainfed lowland and upland rice ecosystems [29]. The technology is cheap; costs less to grow drought tolerant lines than to grow a susceptible one. Yield performance under both drought stressed and non-drought stressed environments are realized, with the drought tolerant line having the ability to be cultivated in all seasons with no yield penalties in the good years [20]. Farmers should be encouraged to adopt early maturing lines like the NERICAS. Breeding for early maturing lines can be used to come up with genotypes that mature faster thus evading drought stress especially in rain fed production [30]. Using improved water storage, harvesting and underwater could supplement rain in rainfed system avoiding total crop failure when rains fail or are inadequate. This can also increase irrigation potential to 1.3 ha [15].
