SALT-water intrusion into paddy field is causing severe damage to rice production while creating scarcity for pure drinking water in the coastal areas. Intrusion of salt water in long coastal region is big threat to paddy production; which the government always wants to keep under control by coastal embankments. The situation however started to aggravate since the installation of Farakka Barrage as the finding of a joint study by World Bank and Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO) released recently and reported by a national daily said.
The report says, not only Bangladesh; Vietnam is also suffering from the same problem of intrusion of saline water to agricultural land and urgent action is needed to prevent it. The point that how Farakka Barrage is contribution to the problem is from the fact that severe drop of sweet water aquifer has hit agricultural land as water flows in the Ganges has slowed down to the bottom. This in turn allows intrusion of saline water to destroy fertility of land reducing production.
As per media report sea level rise combined with floods and water logging caused by cyclones is increasingly threatening rice yield in large areas. The World Bank and the NIBIO reports is alarming as far as it suggests unless counter measures are taken to stop the intrusion of saline water on farm land and develop more-salinity resistant crops, food production in coastal areas will suffer serious setback. The caution is true for both Bangladesh and Vietnam. The World Bank report further said salinity in Bangladesh will cause significant shortages of pure water for drinking and irrigation by 2050.
We know that scientists have already produced salt resistant crops and some of the species have already been tested. In our view the use of such paddy in salt prone areas must get wider circulation to save plants from being destroyed. But the problems are multiples. Longer coastline protection is difficult. Tidal surge destroys embankments. Experts suggest that increased soil salinity may cause up to 15.6 percent drop in production in the next 30 years.
It means lower output and lower income for farmers. High levels of salt in agricultural soil or irrigation-water make it difficult for salt-sensitive rice plants and other crops to absorb necessary water nutrients. In this backdrop, rice production in some areas of southern region has been abandoned for shrimp cultivation, because shrimp varieties can tolerate higher salt levels than most rice varieties.
In our view conservation of soil and protection of agricultural land from intrusion of saline water by maintaining embankments are some very highly technical problems. We know that such schemes are at work and we must make sure that corruption and misuse of funds and mismanagement of projects can’t compromise their effectiveness anyway.
