Natural calamities hamper rice growth rate in Orissa

Cuttack, Nov 15 (UNI) Natural calamities like flood and drought that hit Orissa at regular intervals affects rice growth rate in the state, Central Rice Research Institute Director M P Pandey said here today.

Mr Pandey said Orissa has all things--like fertile land, moderate climate, good ground water reserve and technology needed for more rice production but the yield hampered as flood and drought hit the state every two years.

In addition to it the technology developed by agriculture scientists to have high yield in minimum time was not reaching the farmers leading to low rice growth rate in the state.

He said the growth rate of rice in Orissa was less than one per cent in comparision to 1.25 per cent in Andhra Pradesh and 1.67 per cent in West Bengal.

Mr Pandey said both the union and the state governments should do something for the transfer of technology from the laboratories to the farmers for better production and income.

He said the scientists have developed a number of hybrid varieties of rice crop production technology during the last few years that helped the country to attain self suffiency in rice production.

Rice production in India increased three fold from 30 mt during 1964-65 to 91 million tonnes during 2005-6. India is now the third country in the world after Thailand and Vietnam to export rice.

India exports rice worth Rs 10,000 crore per annum.

But the current research and development strategy was inadequate to meet the increasing food demand of rising population and needs of the international trade in coming days.

A quantum jump in rice production was needed with the present trend of declining per capita availability of land and water.

Mr Pandey said to find out solution the Association of Rice Research Workers (ARRW) in association with CRRI and ICAR is organising a two-day symposium'' Research priorities and strategies in rice production system'' for a second green revolution from November 20.

The objective of symposium is to evaluate latest research, develop effective resource management, prioritise research and identify water saving technology for rice production.

He said Vice-Chancellor of JNKVV, Jabalpur, OUAT, Bhubaneswar, IGAU, Raipur and Deputy Director General of ICAR P L Gautam are among others scheduled to grace the symposium.

UNI