Villagers strain out hybrid paddy

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-family:="" times="" new="" roman="" class="author">Indronil Roy Chowdhury</span><br />HALDIA: With a new variety of paddy taking care of their woes, accidentally though, the farmers of Bakcha village are no longer bothered by heavy monsoons.<br />“It was six to seven years back, when we sowed Jaya variety in our fields.Bur just before the harvest, heavy showers damaged our crops. After a few days, to our wonder, we noticed a tall variety of paddy shooting up above the water level and the entire stretch gave an excellent harvest. Though it was not much of a high standard, it was high yielding.�<br />The farmers claimed that they had been experimenting with this variety for the past five-six years and have come to know the conditions of its growth. <br />But the State Seed Corporation is not aware of it yet. It has been named the Jaya Cross and it grows well under heavy water.<br />The paddy sprouts in both flooded fields and also has no hassles in growth under normal conditions. “It yields around 20-25 quintal per acre, much above the conventional hi-breeds and requires very little fertilizer,� said cultivator Dilip Panda.<br />The farmers of Sabang, Pingla and Potashpur are using the seed for cultivation on low lands, while farmers from Purulia are cultivating the paddy in shallow ponds with encouraging results, added the Bakcha farmers. Though the SSC is not yet familiar with this variety, officials admitted that such a variety could prove effective in flood conditions and low lands. “Though this is a low-quality variety and would not fetch a good price in the domestic market, it would be help to poor farmers as it involved very low investments,� said Chinmoy Ranjan Roy, SSC agriculture expert.<br />Audit officer Bimal Burman, through his stint of agricultural research, informed that farmers in Moyna have cultivated this variety along with culturing fish at the same stretch of flood land. </div> </div>