Experts brief minister on ‘all-weather’ paddy

PATNA: Agriculture scientists associated with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Manila on Thursday claimed they had developed varieties of paddy with which farmers could expect good yield in the flood as well as drought-prone districts of Bihar.

A five-member IIRI team of scientists led by its DG Mathew Morell called on state agriculture minister Prem Kumar and also explained the beneficial aspects of the new finds as they not only yielded good production but were also rich in nutritional value.

Earlier, minister Kumar described to them that 21 districts of the state were prone to floods and the rest to drought. He also said farmers in districts like Begusarai and Khagaria had started switching over to soyabean cultivation as it required less water.

Kumar said farmers in north Bihar needed a strain of paddy that could withstand the gushing floodwaters, while those in the drought-prone south Bihar districts needed paddy which could weather lack of rain for a month.

He said the challenge caused by flood was greater because the floodwaters usually damaged the standing paddy crops. Last year, 8.4 lakh hectare of paddy was destroyed. Farmers in the state take three crops – Kharif, Rabi and ‘garma paddy’. The minister also asked the IRRI scientists to present a demonstration of their method of paddy cultivation in the current Kharif season to which they agreed.

IRRI DG Morell and agriculture scientist Arvind Kumar informed the minister that the institute had developed a strain of paddy that could withstand pressure of floodwaters for 15 days. Similarly, another strain of paddy could be cultivated in drought-prone areas as it required minimal water for a month.

Morel said the IRRI had established its South Asia Regional Centre at Varanasi and had also been collaborating with several agriculture universities in the country, including Bihar Agriculture University at Sabour (Bhagalpur). The methods developed by IRRI helped reduce production costs and also promoted farm mechanisation and management of natural resources (like soil, water and insects), Morel said.