Water and nutrient availability limits plant growth and ultimately the yield in all agricultural ecosystems. While the breeders in the past decades have made huge improvements by manipulating ‘shoot-based traits’, especially the reproductive qualities, the root, an important ecological topic has received less attention. There is still an immense potential to increase yields because the wide genetic variation trapped in roots has not been exploited properly so far. About one-third of earth’s aerable land is arid, and there are very few areas that are not subject to periodic drought. Our group focuses on mechanism of root growth under abiotic stress and thereby improving stress tolerance in plant. We have identified genes encoding transcription factors and kinases and demonstrated their role in root development during abiotic stresses. Our long-term goal is to use genetic engineering to improve root biomass and tolerance to abiotic stresses of important crops particularly, chickpea.