For many smallholder farmers in South and Southeast Asia, rice is more than a staple food—it's a livelihood. Generations of smallholder farmers have relied solely on rainfall to irrigate their crops, but the increasing frequency and severity of dry spells caused by climate change are putting rice production under extreme pressure. Some traditional rice varieties grown in these regions have adapted to dry conditions, and may hold the key to developing strategies to boost rice production under drought: "If we can identify the genes involved in drought resistance of traditional rice varieties, we can use this knowledge for breeding new, more stable-yielding, drought-resistant rice varieties," says Dr. Simon "Niels" Groen, first author of an exciting new study published in The Plant Cell.