Success Story on Demonstration of Swarna Sub1- Submergence Tolerance Rice Variety

Introduction:

In Tamil Nadu every year, out of the 15 lakh hectares of rice cultivated during samba season, an area of 3 to 5 lakh hectares rice crop gets affected by flood during the North East monsoon. In particular, the flood-prone tail-end areas of Nagapattinam districts are often affected due to flood and result in very low rice production and productivity. Rice is the Major crop of the Nagapattinam district and normally cultivated in 170000 ha during samba/thaladi season. The Samba rice cultivation mainly depends upon canal water supply and North East monsoon. Heavy down pour during North East Monsoon and flood affects the Samba crop especially in tail end area of Nagapattinam District.

Problems Faced by the Farmer 

• Crop loss or very poor yield due to heavy rain and flood (20-25%). 
• Lack of drainage facilities leading to submergence of crops and yield reductions.
• Non availability of flood tolerant rice varieties.

          To overcome this problem, TNAU has introduced the Swarna Sub1 rice variety in the year 2011-12 which can resist floods/submergence condition. This variety can tolerate 14-17 days of submergence during floods. It is ideal for growing under SRI conditions also.

KVK Interventions:

• Demonstration on Swarna Sub-1 variety was conducted in 50 locations with the support of Department of Rice, TNAU, Coimbatore during 2011-12. Field day was conducted in the flood prone villages namely Neduvasal, Palaiyanur and Sembanarkoil. During the field day, the District collector, JDA, DDs, ADAs from 5 blocks and 112 farmers were invited and showed the performance of the variety. Front Line Demonstration was conducted by KVK, Nagapattinam in 10 locations of flood affected area during 2012-13.
• KVK, Nagapattinam has produced 500 kg of Swarna-Sub-1 rice variety seeds during 2013-14 and distributed to the farmers. Area under Swarna Sub-1 was increased to 120 ha in 2013-14 from 20 ha in 2011-12.
• During 2014-15 and 2015-16 this technology was disseminated through Department of Agriculture by distributing the seeds to the farmers at subsidize price.

Economic advantage of the technology adopted

Swarna Sub 1 variety has recorded a yield of 5990 kg/ha even after 16 days of submergence. This was 22 percent high over the variety BPT 5204 (4902 kg/ha). Performance was better in water logged condition with a net return of Rs 33,000/ha and BC ratio of 1: 2.1.

The farmers feedback was

• Pest & Diseases incidence was less in this variety
• This variety was tolerant to lodging
• Swarna Sub-1 variety can withstand the flood upto 16 days and high yield under submerged conditions.
• Hence the Nagapattinam farmers were satisfied with the Swarna Sub-1 variety under submerged conditions.