Submergence-tolerant rice varieties rayof hope for farmers in flood-prone Assam
Guwahati: With the Met department having forecast normal to above normal rainfall in parts of Assam, the introduction of flood and stress-tolerant rice varieties has brought a glimmer of hope to farmers in the state. In Jorgaon village located in the flood-prone Morigaon district of central Assam, nearly all 125 households have embraced climate-resilient technology to protect their crops from the fury of monsoon.
The initiative taken by villagers, many of whom had given up paddy cultivation altogether during the rainy season, has not only boosted their income but also rekindled their interest in farming. The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Assam Agricultural University and the state agriculture
department have collaborated to introduce stress-tolerant rice varieties, covering approximately 4.5 lakh hectares of land in the state to enable paddy farming in flood-prone regions, under the Assam Agribusiness and Rural Transformation Project (APART) and other schemes Rabin Bordoloi, a farmer from Jorgaon village, began searching for a flood-resistant paddy variety in 2018. He sought assistance from the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) in Morigaon, which was at the time promoting flood-tolerant
rice varieties such as Ranjit-Sub1, Bahadur-Sub1 and Swarna-Sub1 in partnership with IRRI under APART.
Following a successful demonstration of the Ranjit-Sub1 variety by KVK, Bordoloi witnessed his paddy fields surviving the inundation caused by the monsoon floods. Encouraged by this outcome, the entire village of farmers began cultivating the flood-tolerant Sub1 varieties, particularly the Ranjit-Sub1.
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