Recent years have witnessed the evolution of precision genome editing by Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats/ CRISPR-associated protein 9 (CRISPR/Cas9) that utilizes RNA-guided sequence-specific genome editing. This system has provided an unprecedented control over manipulating genomic regions for altering plant agronomically important traits. However, the genetic engineering approach employing overexpression or suppression of the target gene(s) still remains highly relevant in improving plant tolerance to abiotic stresses like soil phosphate deficiency. Most Indian agriculture soils have sub-optimum to very low levels of phosphate leading to the heavy application of expensive phosphate fertilizers which have environmental and economic implications. Rice is the largest consumers of phosphate fertilizers owing to it poor (~20%) phosphate use efficiency (PUE). Our work has unraveled the important genes which have been targeted for enhancing rice PUE using both genetic engineering and gene-editing approaches. For example, purple acid phosphatases (OsPAPs) hydrolyze diverse organic-P compounds for releasing soluble inorganic P. We have shown that OsPAP21b and OsPAP3b could improve the transgenic rice growth on organic -P supplemented soils. Simultaneously, P uptake was improved by targeting Pi transporters using precise gene-editing. The current talk would be focused on our efforts on improving rice PUE using both gene-editing and genetic engineering in rice.