A risk was taken by Nitu Bara last year. This year's floods saved at least one and a half thousand farmers in Banavasi villages in the western Brahmaputra area.
Many hectares of agricultural land in Assam were destroyed by floods every year. So far this year, more than one lakh hectares of agricultural land has been flooded in 25 districts. Traditional rice seeds are spoiled if the land is underwater for five days.
Nitubabu has three and a half bighas of paddy land in Balidua village of Golaghat. That is the area of West Brahmaputra where the incidence of floods is high. He was cultivating traditional paddy. And he was suffering huge losses in the floods.
At a workshop organized by the Assam Agribusiness and Rural Transformation (APART) project last year, Nitubabu came to know that a rice seed called Ranjit Sub-1 had come out which survived underwater for 15 days. The name sub comes from submerged or submerged in water.
Nitu Bora took the risk by planting new paddy in 2 hectares of land. The flood is. It can be seen that even though the paddy of the rest of the land was destroyed, Nitu Bora has won the battle against the flood at least with the help of Ranjit Sub-1 paddy. Word of the vitality of the new paddy spread among the people.
Abhishek Singh, a researcher at the apartment, said farmers here mainly use traditional paddy and face losses. Although reddish Bao paddy can withstand floods, its yield is very low. Assam flood-tolerant rice varieties were introduced in 2016. Neetu Bara's land is the first successful test of anti-flood paddy by hand. The project is funded by the World Bank. Encouraged by the vitality of Nitubabu's paddy, this year at least one and a half thousand farmers in the West Brahmaputra area have cultivated the paddy in 950 hectares of land. Everyone is now smiling after overcoming the flood.
Not only in terms of vitality but also in terms of yield, new paddy is making the farmers smile. According to the Department of Agriculture, the yield of traditional Manokwari or prasad bhog is only 7.8 quintals, whereas Ranjit sub-1 yields up to 21.6 quintals per 0.25 hectare. The Department of Agriculture is also campaigning to popularize two more flood-tolerant paddies Gold Sub-1 and Bahadur Sub-1 paddy in the village.
Asit Chakraborty, the former vice-chancellor of Kalyani Agricultural University, said many traditional paddies could now withstand the floods in line with the changing nature. There are several such rice varieties in West Bengal. Their roots are 15 feet below. However, in terms of yield, traditional rice cannot compete with the researched rice. However, it is not wise to rely on fully researched new rice just for the sake of yield. You have to keep the balance.
