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“Sustainable Crop plantation technique in flood affected areas”

Name of the participants

Twahira Begum

Hridoyjit Phukon

Uma Devi Newar

Sudin Kumar Pandey

Presentation for addressing the unmet social needs

for

from

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Meeting the unmet needs: inclusive development through innovations for and from grassroots

Introduction

  • Assam is the land of two mighty river systems – centering the Brahmaputra and the Barak. Each year these two rivers and their tributaries cause floods in vast areas of Assam.
  • The geographical setting of the region, high intensity of rainfall due to the South West Monsoon, easily erodible geographical formation aggravates floods in Assam.
  • Assam with its vast network of rivers is prone to natural disasters like flood and erosion which has a negative impact on overall development of the state. The Brahmaputra and Barak River with more than 50 numbers of tributaries feeding them, causes the flood devastation in the monsoon period each year.
  • The riverine fertile agricultural lands of the state are getting reduced due to flood prone erosion. It has a negative impact on the rural economy of the state.

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Meeting the unmet needs: inclusive development through innovations for and from grassroots

  • More than 30 lakh hectares, or almost 40%, of total land in the state is flood-prone, according to the Rashtriya Barh Ayog (National Flood Commission). This includes about 4,75,000 hectares of cropped land, most of it devoted to rice cultivation, out of a total of 28 lakh hectares cultivated in the state.
  • Agriculture and allied activities have overriding importance as a source of livelihood to the people of Assam. It still contributes about two-fifths (39.38 per cent in 1999-2000) of its NSDP and supports about 70 per cent of its population. Assam produced 4.3 per cent of total all India rice output while its total food grains output share was 1.9 per cent in 1999-2000.
  • Most of the farmers in Assam are engaged in paddy cultivation which is most vulnerable at such situation with most of the crops being destroyed.

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Meeting the unmet needs: inclusive development through innovations for and from grassroots

Identified Unmet need

Flood is a major constraint for farmers of Assam. During the period of flood the plantation of paddy is challenging for the farmers when such lands are submerged in the floods for as long as two weeks thus destroying the crops. To overcome such problems the creation of temporary sustainable nursery beds can be a viable solution to continue the normal agricultural practice of paddy cultivation.

The study suggests that when agricultural lands are affected due to the floods, then with the help of available natural resources i.e.- banana stems found in the affected area will help to prepare temporary sustainable nursery beds. These kinds of beds can also serve as plantation ground for other short-rooted crops.  

Major objectives

- Crop plantation in a flood proof way.

- Sustainability and cost effective solution.

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Meeting the unmet needs: inclusive development through innovations for and from grassroots

Proposed Solution

Assam with its vast network of rivers is prone to natural disasters like floods and erosion which hurts the overall development of the state. The Brahmaputra and Barak River with more than 50 numbers of tributaries feeding them, causes flood devastation in the monsoon period each year. So we have selected the flood prone areas of the state as the aspirational areas to address the unmet need of cultivation during flood urgency.

The proposed solution aims at utilizing banana stems as the base for the preparation of nursery beds during urgency. Since India is the highest producer of bananas, banana stems are easily available in abundance. The stems would help to address the cultivation crisis during the flood.

Further, a study reported that the foliage of banana stems contained 38.03% carbon, 0.42% nitrogen, and 5.46% hydrogen which would further enrich the planted crops. Banana trunk nursery technique would be an easy and cost-effective process for promoting cultivation which could be both sustainable and floodproof.

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Materials required:-

Banana trunk

Pre-germinated Paddy seed

Soil [early /instant collected

Biofertilizer etc.

Preparation of instant nursery bed for paddy cultivation

Cutting the banana trunks into 1 meter length and altogether taking the other same sized trunks to make a 1x1 sqm nursery bed.

Now the top portion of the banana trunk bed is sliced to form a uniform level for further steps.

The boundary of the uniform base is covered by pieces of wood/bamboo with solid anchoring support.

After that the base is filled with soil mixture over the leveled banana stems (when nursery bed is submerged, then muddy soil can be used). We can add biofertilizer here.

Then pre-germinated paddy seeds (atleast 24h before) are sprinkled on top of the nursery bed. The banana leaf can be use for covering the bed during the germination process. They are irrigated 2-3times/day.

As per the flood situation this kind of nursery bed can be placed in a suitable area till the seedlings are ready for transplantation.

When seedling have germinated, the bed can be transplanted to actual paddy fields.

Methodology

Meeting the unmet needs: inclusive development through innovations for and from grassroots

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Meeting the unmet needs: inclusive development through innovations for and from grassroots

  • Easily available
  • Cost-effective
  • Requires minimum irrigation due to high water retention capacity of banana stems
  • Helps in minimizing space as well as resources. 
  • When the stems finally decompose, they end up enriching the soil
  • The conventionally used mat type nursery costs more than the proposed solution which is sustainable as well.

Advantages of the proposed solution

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Meeting the unmet needs: inclusive development through innovations for and from grassroots

Reference

  • https://www.sentinelassam.com/editorial/flood-in-assam-causes-remedies-490970
  • https://waterresources.assam.gov.in/portlets/flood-erosion-problems
  • https://scroll.in/article/996359/in-assam-new-rice-varieties-are-a-lifeline-for-farmers-struggling-to-adapt-to-climate-change
  • Habsah Alwi, Juferi Idris, Mohibah Musa, Ku Halim Ku Hamid, "A Preliminary Study of Banana Stem Juice as a Plant-Based Coagulant for Treatment of Spent Coolant Wastewater", Journal of Chemistry, vol. 2013, Article ID 165057, 7 pages, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/165057

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Meeting the unmet needs: inclusive development through innovations for and from grassroots