Performance of Salinity Tolerant, Semi-Deepwater and Deepwater Folk Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Varieties of West Bengal Under Irrigated Ecosystem

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is a semi-aquatic plant. It is cultivated in five ecosystems where the source of water supply and the degree of flooding are the major environmental determinants. The rice types corresponding to these ecosystems are rain-fed low- and upland rice, rice grown under controlled irrigated conditions, deepwater rice, and rice in tidal wetlands. Half of the total rice area in India is rainfed, mostly in six eastern Indian states (Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal) accounting for 9.8 million ha. This rainfed ecosystem is mostly prone to submergence, water logging, drought and salinity. Abiotic stress resistant varieties of rice are needed to deal with the vagaries of monsoon. Nearly 3.9 million ha of rice area is prone to frequent floods and 4.3 mha is prone to drought in eastern India. Flash flood is also a serious problem. In flash flood situations, depth and duration of submergence varies with the magnitude of flood and the land topography. But sometimes, the flood may not occur at all or there could be a drought too then the land would need controlled irrigated conditions. Thus, there is a need to screen the salinity tolerant, semi-deep or deepwater folk rice genotypes for their performance in controlled irrigated conditions. In this investigation several rice varieties, both traditional rice and checks, like Hamilton, Jaljabra, Jalkamini, Kumragore, Matla, Meghi, Tilakkachari, IR 42, IR 68305, Manosarovar, Ratna and Sabita were screened for many agro-morphological parameters under controlled irrigated conditions, and communicated in the paper.