ICAR to grow high-yield rice in Goa

PANAJI: Scientists at Indian Council for Agriculture Research ( ICAR) are now exploring the possibility of using saline ' Khazan' lands in coastal Goa to grow high-yield rice varieties, a senior official said on Thursday.

ICAR researchers are drawing lessons from neighbouring Maharashtra where Khazan land research station is doing yeoman's job in this field.

The 'Khazans' are saline floodplains along Goa's tidal estuaries, which have been reclaimed over centuries by constructing intricate system of dykes and sluice gates.

ICAR Goa Director Dr N P Singh said that rice varieties like - Amalmana SR-26-B and CST 7-1 (Kolkata varieties), three varieties of Panvel rice, Vattila and Lunishree (Cuttack varieties) and the Jarwa of Port Blair, will be experimented in these saline land stretches.

The researchers feel the inundation of these lands have been a major constraint for production of rice varieties.