Anjan Kumar Sinha
Bankura Sammilani College
Title: Conservation of agro-biodiversity of folk rice varieties of West Bengal for sustainable agriculture
Biography
Biography: Anjan Kumar Sinha
Abstract
Rice is a staple food of India. Among the states, West Bengal is the leading producer of paddy in the country and has earned the distinction of being one of the “food basket” states of India. From time immemorial, West Bengal state of India is one of the biggest reservoirs of agro biodiversity centre of India. According to an estimate in the year 1975 more than 5000 folk varieties of rice was reported from West Bengal state of India. From extensive survey it was observed that number of farmer’s varieties of rice was decreasing very fast and is restricted to less than around one hundred varieties only at present. Needless to mention, the landraces are disappearing fast from the rice field of this state. Proper conservation is necessary, otherwise, we may lose these naturally growing varieties with numerous important genetic constituents. These varieties are valuable as they possess treasure of genetic material which may prove valuable in future crop development and improvement programs. Immediate attention will be needed for the conservation and restoration of these varieties on the agro-ecosystem and which will be the main reason for future food crisis, because crop improvement and production of disease free variety will solely depend upon the selected genes possibly present in the gene pool of farmer’s varieties of rice. Present work deals with the on-farm conservation and restoration of these folk varieties which are in a state of extinction and so far I have conserved more than 200 important folk rice varieties of West Bengal and trying to restore them in their natural habitat