Abstract:Rice ( Oryza sativa L. ) of drought-tolerant cuhivar "Xiangzhongxian No. 2" showed much lower O2- production rate under drought condition than that of drought-sensitive cultivar "Xi- angzaoxian No. 12". Drought damages on both rice cultivars were accelerated by paraquat (0.01 mmol/L) and H2O2(10 mmol/L); but the drought-tolerant cultivar had greater resistance to these damages than did the drought-sensitive cuhivar. The results also showed that in rice of droughttolerant cultivar, the increase in activities of. superoxide dismutase and peroxidase were much higher than that in drought-sensitive cultivar after treatment of paraquat, and the increase in activity of catalase was more significantly after treatment of H2O2 than that in drought-sensitive cultivar. These results suggest that the drought-tolerant cultivar had greater resistance to oxidative stresses than did the drought-sensitive cultivar.