'Nona Swarna' variety of rice launched at Saras Mela

kolkata: For the first time, Bengal will get the chance to savour the new variety of salt tolerant rice 'Nona Swarna' that was officially launched at the Saras Mela that began at New Town Mela Grounds from Thursday.

After Cyclone Yaas hit the state in June this year, large stretches of land close to the sea in three districts North and South South 24-Parganas and East Midnapore were inundated and saline water that entered into agricultural land posed a barrier to paddy cultivation. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee asked the state Agriculture department to come up with alternative rice variety that can withstand salinity.

"Experts associated with our department were engaged in extensive research and cultivation of six salt-tolerant paddy variety. Among them, we got success in two varieties—Nona Swarna and Dudheswar. The decision of launching Nona Swarna was undertaken under the instructions of our Chief Minister at the Saras Mela itself and all arrangements were made on a war footing," state Agriculture minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay said. The department has put up a stall mainly for the purpose of marketing this new variety of rice.

Nona Swarna variety has been grown on 27749 hectares of land and the farmers have been provided an assistance of Rs 262.89 crore for taking up cultivation of this variety. The best production for Nona Swarna has been in North 24-Parganas and Dudheswar in South 24-Parganas.

According to sources, the state government had hand held over four lakh farmers in three coastal districts to cultivate new varieties of salt-tolerant paddy to curb the repeated damage of standing crops by saline water. In June, a total of 1,290 metric tonnes of 'Nona Swarna' paddy seeds were distributed amongfarmers in North and South 24-Parganas and East Midnapore under the 'Krishak Bandhu' scheme.