Forage grasses under drought stress in conditions of Poland

Crop performance and yield are the results of genotypic expression as modulated by continuous interaction with the environment. Among the environmental factors, water is one of the most important, which limits the crop production on a global basis. Water resources in the world are steadily diminishing, and in many areas, including Poland, more frequent periods of drought are observed. There are many problems that are specifically related to water scarcity: an extremely dynamic nature of plant water status, relationship to the severity of the effects of water, time stress during ontogeny of plants, and the interaction of water stress with other environmental variables. The paper presents a review of recent literature on the effect of the grasses to drought stress at the level of physiological processes and the possibility of yielding. A better understanding of how long-term growth and yield are affected by water stress should aid in improving irrigation efficiency and practices, in modifying plants for more efficient water use, and in developing effective dry-land agriculture.