Rice residual waste, such as rice straw and rice husk is one of the most abundantly found renewable agricultural wastes. It is one of the richest sources of the lignocellulose which usually comes under the common practice of burning after harvesting of rice as this waste is of no other use. But it can be utilized for the production of bioethanol. The major challenge for the bioethanol production from the rice residual waste is the pretreatment of this lignocellulosic waste for the removal of lignin content which limits the accessibility of cellulose to the enzymes. This review article focuses on various pretreatment strategies which are most effective for rice residual waste to get the high yield of bioethanol.