Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the most vital staple food crop in Asia and human consumption accounts for 85% of total production of rice and it ought to have a special status among cereals as world’s most important crop (FAO, 2010). Given its burgeoning population growth, India should be producing 1.7 million t of additional rice every year to ensure national food security (Dass and Chandra, 2013). Consequently, there is a need to increase sustainably higher yields and productivity of rice cultivation, doing this to the extent possible with reduced inputs and