Sunderbans puts high hopes on salt tolerant varieties of paddy

Ingress of saline water due to regular cyclones may result in food crisis in the region

The devastation caused by cyclone Yaas that battered coastal West Bengal in the last week of May was not in terms of loss of life but the huge ingress of saline water which affected thousands of acres of agricultural land. In the past six weeks other than distributing relief and compensating people the West Bengal government has been distributing salt tolerant varities of paddy to farmers. “We have distributed six such paddy varieties — 1,200 metric tonnes — which are tolerant to high levels of salinity,” said Sampad Ranjan Patra, Director of Agriculture. The ingress of saline water not only kills standing crops but increases salinity of the soil and makes the cultivation of regular high-yielding varieties almost impossible for the next few years. This may result in food crisis in the region which suffers natural disasters at an increased frequency.