Drought is one of the most important factors that influences plant morphology, biochemistry, and physiology, and finally leads to the decline in crops productivity and seed quality. Climate change, severe changes in water availability together with thermal stresses environment coincide with increasing human population, and to reveal sustainable solutions it is necessary to understand: i) how cereals react to drought, ii) how the tolerance mechanisms are exhibited by the genotype, and iii) which approaches enable to increase the tolerance of crop species against limited water availability. Especially in cereals as in high-quality food sources, it is important to reveal the adaptation mechanisms to rainfall dynamics on arable land and to the prolonged period of drought. This review summarizes current knowledge on the impact of drought on cereals, the mechanisms these crops utilize to cope water scarcity and survive, and the most efficient approaches to improve their drought tolerance.

Adverse environmental conditions, such as various biotic and abiotic stresses, are the primary reason for decreased crop productivity. Oat, as one of the world’s major crops, is an important cereal in human nutrition. The aim of this work was to analyze the effect of inoculation with two species of the genus Fusarium on the selected qualitative parameters of oat grain intended for the food industry. Artificial inoculation caused a statistically significant decrease in the content of starch, oleic, linoleic, and α-linolenic acids in oat grains compared to the control. Moreover, artificial inoculation had no statistically significant effect on the content of β-D-glucans, total dietary fiber, total lipids, palmitic, stearic, and cis-vaccenic acids. An increase in the content of polyunsaturated fatty acids in oat grains was observed after inoculation. The most important indicator of Fusarium infection was the presence of the mycotoxin deoxynivalenol in the grain. The content of β-D-glucans, as a possible protective barrier in the cell wall, did not have a statistically significant effect on the inoculation manifestation in the grain.