Not AvailableThe low and flat lands of Sundarbans face two contrasting situations; inundated and submerged with excess runoff in the rainy season and acute scarcity of fresh water in the rabi /summer seasons. Traditionally sole crop paddy is cultivated in this region during the rainy season without any on farm management practice. Meanwhile, some land shaping technologies have been developed at ICAR-CSSRI, RRS, Canning Town such as Farm Pond, Paddy-cum- fish, Ridge and furrow etc. These technologies not only helping to store flood/runoff water and reducing drainage congestion during the rainy season, supplemental life saving irrigation of crops during dry period has become possible. The upland formed by putting the dugout soil dries earlier than the medium and lowlands and provides scope for cultivation early in the post monsoon period. A solar drip irrigation system installed at the experimental farm of CSSRI, RRS, Canning station resulted in 60 percent saving of labour, 30-40 percent saving of water with 20-30% increase in yield than the traditional cultivation of same vegetable crops in the rabi season. Tomato was the best crop during rabi season in terms of return. However, Okra was more tolerant to flash flood and salinity than red beet, cow pea and basella as a summer crop. Thus, suitable crops along with modern irrigation techniques can provide scope for crop diversification and intensification in the backward coastal region.ICA
