Rice is one of the most consumed staple food crop and assists as a chief food basis for more than half of the world population. T h e objective of this paper was to review recent efforts achieved in rice breeding for drought tolerance. Most of the world�s rice is cultivated and consumed in Asia. Although Asia is the main place of rice cultivation; it also harvested in other continents like Latin America, Europe, USA and some parts of Africa. Rice was introduced in to Ethiopia during the 1970s and fast distribution of the crop within the country has been achieved due to the presence of vast suitable agro ecologies for rice production. However, production of rice was decreasing through time due to many biotic and abiotic stresses. Among them drought is one of the most serious and common abiotic stress which affect yield and other traits of rice. Early, intermittent or continuous and late drought stresses are three basic drought patterns affecting rice production. Drought in rice has a big impact both in economic and morphological characteristics of rice. Rice, like other crops, can potentially resist drought stress using three different strategies, such as drought escape through short duration varieties, avoidance and using drought tolerance traits. Conventional breeding, marker-assisted selection and genetic engineering are the main breeding approaches to develop drought tolerance rice varieties. Modern breeding approaches have a greater advantage than conventional for drought tolerance that can be identify a desirable gene, even in the absence of a visible trait, more precise and efficient and identify undesirable genes that can be eliminated in future generations. Among molecular markers, RAPD and ISSRs have become excellent tools for rice breeders. Ethiopia has wide agricultural drought prone environments. However, not yet identify rice genotypes for drought tolerance. So, it needs a great effort to develop drought tolerant high yielding rice varieties in t h e country.