Port Blair, Oct 29: A Field Day on farmers’ participatory variety selection was organised by ICAR-CIARI at Creekabad, Chouldari, South Andaman recently for the selection of salt tolerant varieties of rice. The aim was to choose the best and suitable high yielding and salt tolerant rice varieties for rice cultivation in the sea shore areas of ANI under an IRRI-India-STRASA project. The programme was conducted under the overall guidance of Dr. S. Dam Roy, Director, ICAR-CIARI, Port Blair.
Dr. R. K. Gautam, Principal Scientist and Head, FCIP Division & Project Investigator was the chief guest of the programme. Dr. S. K. Zamir Ahmed, Principal Scientist, Dr. P.K.Singh, Senior Scientist and Dr. Awnindra. K. Singh, Senior Scientist delivered the lectures and facilitated the programme. Altogether, 49 farmers (34 Men and 15 Women) participated in the programme. The farmers and scientists cast their votes for the selection of superior salt tolerant varieties transplanted at farmers’ fields. Dr. P. K. Singh emphasised about selection of varieties and methods of voting. Dr. S. K. Zamir Ahmed and Dr. Awnindra K. Singh spoke on the importance of farmers’ participatory variety selection. At the end, Dr. R. K. Gautam gave Chief Guest lecture and mentioned about salinity tolerance research work being carried out for the islands wherein about 3000 ha rice area is affected by sea water salinity.
