Written by: Kuntal Das*, Swati Nayak**, Sarvesh Shukla***
Mohanpur, a small village in the Muratganj Block of Kaushambi District in Uttar Pradesh, is situated near the branch of the Ganga River and 30 kilometers away from the district headquarter in Manjhanpur. In this village, most of the farmers are smallholders and their main source of livelihood is rice cultivation in kharif (wet) season. In the wet season, the village is mostly affected by flood every year. The flooding of the rice fields, cause the farmers significant uncertainties in rice production. Rice, being their major source of livelihood as well as household food security, puts them at immense risk of crop, food, and income loss due to flood. Birendra Kumar, a farmer in Mohanpur, depends exclusively on his 2-hectare land. He worries about the unpredictability of the quantity and quality of rice production in kharif and flood damage every year.
Being a progressive farmer, Birendra has a strong interest in cultivating new improved varieties of paddy and vegetable crops. He saw a ray of hope when he heard about the flood-tolerant, early duration, high-yielding rice variety BINA Dhan-11 through International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). Birendra was enthusiastic about assessing BINA Dhan-11 in his field anticipating that the variety could be the solution to his existing challenges.
Through Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) Kaushambi, Birendra acquired 10 kg of BINA Dhan-11 seeds under the Accelerated Genetic Gain in Rice (AGGRi) Alliance in kharif 2021. AGGRi is coordinated by the IRRI-South Asia Regional Centre (SARC) in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. He cultivated this variety on 0.2 ha of his land. In adjacent field the local variety Sarbati was transplanted by Hanuman Deen, neighboring farmer. Sarbati is a fine grain rice variety that has been cultivated in the area…