Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the most important food crop in the world, which accounts for more than 21% of the calorific needs of the world’s population and up to 76% of the calorific intake of the population of South East Asia (Ma et al., 2007 and Melissa et al., 2009). Rice production employs one billion people and is essential for the economic development of rural areas in India, Bangladesh and Southeast Asia and provides rural employment and prosperity.

Though significant improvement in productivity has been achieved over the years, a series of biotic and abiotic stresses limits its productivity worldwide. Abiotic stresses alone contributes to 50 per cent of the total yield losses. Among abiotic stresses, salinity, drought and extreme temperatures are major barriers to limit rice crop production. High salt concentration in soil is the major constraint to rice production in Bangladesh and India (Mohammadi-Nejad et al., 2008). The loss of farmable land due to salinisation is directly in conflict with the needs of the world population. Therefore, increasing the yield of rice in poor soils and in less productive salinised lands is essential for feeding the world.