CSSRI Annual Report 2010-11 - Central Soil Salinity Research ...

CSSRI Annual Report 2010-11
Reclamation and management of coastal saline soils
Fresh water scarcity in the non-monsoon period
is the major problem of the area. Shallow tube
wells were installed since almost a decade and
ground water was exploited for increasing the
cropping intensity. The over exploitation of
ground water has affected the functioning of
the tube wells due to depletion of the water
table and also deteriorated the water quality.
Therefore, artificial recharge to fresh water
aquifers is required.
From the data collected from primary and
secondary sources, it was found that some parts
of South 24 Parganas districts are conducive for
artificial recharge. Three villages in this district
namely Andharia, Chandkhali and Bahirsona
were surveyed regarding installation of shallow
tube wells and utilization of groundwater.
Mostly, the high water requiring crop i.e. paddy
is cultivated utilizing the groundwater. The
groundwater from the shallow tube wells were
tested and found that the salinity increased in
the summer. The fresh water aquifer, which is
exploited by the shallow tube wells, was in the
range 90-120 m and is of better quality than the
shallow tube wells in the range 72-90 m. The
diameter of the tube wells varied from 62.5 mm
and 75 mm. The design of the filter chamber
for artificial recharge to fresh water aquifers is
given in Fig. 48.
Fig. 48 : The design of the filter for artificial recharge
through tube well
Socio-economic Impact of Improved
Technologies in the Coastal Areas of West
Bengal (Subhasis Mandal, S.K. Sarangi, D.
Burman and B.K. Bandyopadhyay)
Coastal agriculture is commonly characterized
by complex, risk prone and fragile ecosystem.
Efforts are being made to improve the
productivity of farming systems in the coastal
region. This project envisaged to analyse the
socio-economic impact of some key technologies
or best management practices that are being
tried under farmers’ field condition. The project
was initiated during 2009-10 in coastal areas
of Sundarbans (West Bengal). Site selection
has been done and baseline information was
collected from the adopters and non-adopters of
improved technologies as promoted by CSSRI,
RRS Canning Town. Major technologies targeted
for socio-economic study are various land
shaping technologies such as farm pond, ridge
& furrow and paddy-cum-fish and adoption of
improved rice varieties both in kharif and rabi
season. The economics of dominating farming
systems have been analysed and database on
socio-economic condition of farmers are being
analysed.
The baseline information indicated that majority
of farmers (85%) in the study area were belonging
to weaker section of the society (primarily SC)
and 94 percent of the farmers were marginal
land-holders, rest were small-farmers (1.7 %) and
landless (4.1 %). The land situation is primarily
dominated by low lying (76%) followed by
medium (15%) and upland (9%). Despite having
low return, agriculture was the main occupation
and nearly 42 per cent of the farm families were
primarily dependent on agriculture. In absence
of gainful livelihood options in the local area,
migration to nearby cities is quite prevalent (32%
of farm families) in the study area for search
of alternative livelihood options. Cropping
intensity in the study area was calculated to be
quite low at 120-125 per cent and the cropping
pattern was dominated by the kharif paddy.
Major cropping systems prevailing in the study
area were rice-fallow or rice-rice. The proposed
technological interventions are envisaged to
enhance the cropping intensity as well as farm
income through creation of water resources by
harvesting and storing of rainwater at farm level
Majority of farmers (85%) in the study area
belonged to weaker section of the society
(primarily SC) and 94 percent of the farmers
were marginal land holders, rest were
small and landless. The land situation is
primarily dominated by low-lying followed
by medium and upland
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