**1. Introduction**

The most important staple cereal crop grown for biofuel and food globally is Maize. After wheat and rice, it is 3rd significant crop grown [1, 2]. Studies have suggested that maize production must double, especially in developing nations, to meet the increasing animal and human consumption demand. The optimum temperature range responsible for higher maize production is 28–32°C, and it requires 500–800 mm of water to complete the life cycle [2].

Environmental conditions play a vital role in crop production. The yield and other characteristics of plants are determined by their genotypes and are highly influenced by environmental conditions. Under natural conditions, plants undergo different phases to complete their life cycle. In recent years, climatic parameters such as precipitation, temperature are being more unpredictable and resulted in

prolonged drought, change in temperature beyond the optimal state. Such changes have challenged crop production. In the last two decades, crop productivity has improved. However, the susceptibility of plants to abiotic stress poses a new challenge to sustaining an increase in crop production with changing climatic patterns [3]. Abiotic stress-tolerant crops may be essential to maintain crop productivity in the future [4]. Plant cells activate signaling pathways that include plant hormones, transcription regulators, and signal transducers to respond to various stress. These multiple signals converge to regulate stress-inducible genes, producing proteins and enzymes for stress metabolism [5].

Maize, Wheat, Barley, canola, and other crops attacked by different insect pests which reduced their yield. These attack of insect pest may be due to some compound present in these crop which attract these compound [6–8]. However, these compounds also act as repellent. Insect pests prefer these crops for their progeny production and development to complete their life cycle [9, 10]. Several methods used to control the insect pest and increase crop yield. However, among these methods pesticides severally used in the world. Due to hazardous effect on the human health and environment alternative methods have been adopted to reduce to use of chemical and control insect pests [11–13].

As Maize is worldwide grown grown crops so its production is also threatened by moderate to severe droughts, high air temperature, and erratic rainfalls [14]. The major focus of maize research is to improve abiotic stress tolerance characters. However, it's challenging to identify genetic components responsible for abiotic stress tolerance [3]. Different complex quantitative traits potentially in correlation with other developmental characteristics are responsible for abiotic stress tolerance. These traits are governed by multiple quantitative trait loci (QTL) with small individual effects on the overall trait expression, making it more difficult to identify and modify [1]. This chapter aims to assess the impact of different abiotic stress, especially temperature, in maize production.

### **2.** *Zea mays* **and abiotic stress**

The global drop in grain production of annual crops is accelerating as abiotic pressures, such as nutrient limits and drought, rise to the top of the constraint list [15]. Maize looks to be the most vulnerable crop regarding the effects of climate change on agriculture. Drought, severe heat, salt, and nutrient deficiency are all known to be key environmental factors that harm maize productivity worldwide [16]. Maize's yield and growth are badly affected by waterlogging, low or high temperatures, and intense droughts [17]. Furthermore, due to climate change, ambient temperatures are expected to alter, thereby altering drought frequencies and the intensity in various maize-growing regions globally [18]. Across most Indo-Gangetic plains and Sub-Saharan Africa, the variability of climatic conditions is responsible for nearly half (50%) of the total fluctuations in maize yields in these regions [19].

Abiotic stress in general, and drought in particular, are particularly harmful to maize yields, regardless of the germplasm and stress faced during a developmental stage of the plant [20]. According to some research, when temperatures rise in the world's major maize-producing regions, maturity times may shorten. In contrast, rising temperatures will alter metabolism, resulting in a loss in carbon uptake and, as a result, a decrease in pollination and grain set [21, 22]. Furthermore, high temperatures can cause plant moisture stress due to the soil's decreasing moisture content, in addition to broad-scale climatic variables altering rainfall patterns [23, 24]. Researchers discovered that from 1961 to 2002, the global production of Maize decreased by 8.3% with every degree Celsius increase in temperature, with part of the variation

explained by variations in temperature, both minimum and maximum, and precipitation. As a result, even if Maize is given all of the necessary water, yields are expected to fall by 10–20% by the end of the twenty-first century due to severe climate change [25]. Simultaneously, the global agricultural sector must produce roughly 70% of food for a population expected to reach 9 billion or more by 2050 [26].
