NALBARI, Jan 1 - Two new paddy varietipes have brought a ray of hope to the flood-affected farmers of the State, the land of paddy which is placed on an equal pedestal with Lakshmi, the Goddess of wealth, prosperity and fortune. The culture and festivals of various communities living in the State are connected to the timing and stages of this crop which reminds one of the significance of paddy not only as food but also as a means of celebration. Despite rice being the staple food of the Assamese people, the farmers are still facing various hurdles while cultivating this main crop. Due to the fact that the major portion of the rice-cultivating area is rainfed and there is no guaranty of receiving a well-distributed rain during the sali season, the farmers are facing two major problems�intermittent drought and recurrent floods. While the probability of the former in Assam is less and the problem is manageable to some extent with irrigating water, the latter potentially can cause havoc among farmers.
Though many researches have been done in connection with this issue and many varieties have been developed to withstand submergence during floods in the State, the Assam Agricultural University (AAU), Jorhat has been consistently working in that direction to help the poor farmers of the State. As a result of the efforts made by the AAU, two new varieties were developed in line with two most popular high-yielding paddy varieties Ranjit and Bahadur which have got the reputation of outperforming many potential paddy varieties in the State�s weather conditions. The newly-developed submergence tolerant rice varieties namely Ranjit sub-1 and Bahadur sub-1 are going through field trials in many districts under the supervision of Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs). Such a trial was conducted by the KVK, Nalbari with both the varieties and in two locations � Arangamow and Kaurehagi of Nalbari district where the crop went under submergence for nine and 10 days, respectively. However, the same crop after enduring the flood in early tillering stage, managed to yield even higher yields than those of the other good varieties.
A progressive farmer Sanjib Talukdar of Arangamow village has grown those varieties. The crop was under water for nine days just four days after transplanting during mid-August of 2017. He was losing hope observing the crop�s poor health after the flood waters had receded. However, the crop started to establish within a short period of time and finally yielded 6.1 quintals and 6.4 quintal grains per bigha of Ranjit sub-1 and Bahadur sub-1, respectively.
At the same time, in Kaurehagi, another farmer Deben Thakuria witnessed similar results where the crop was under water for 10 days after 12 days from transplanting. He harvested the crops with 7 quintals of Ranjit sub-1 and 6.7 quintals of Bahadur sub-1 per bigha. The farmers were highly satisfied with the results of these new varieties and they ppromised that they will continue with those varieties in the future also. As per the KVK, Nalbari those varieties can comfortably endure submergence up to 12 days. With this, the farmers will breathe a sigh of relief if such varieties are successfully tested and become available for them.