Performance of Submergence Tolerant Shallow Lowland Rice Variety Swarna sub-1 under Frontline Demonstrations in East and South Eastern Coastal Plain Zone of Odisha, India

Frontline demonstrations on rice crop in 15.4 ha area using submergence tolerant variety Swarna sub-1 were carried out in participatory mode in farmers’ field during Kharif season of 2016, 2017 and 2018 at Ranapur village of Khordha district under East and South Eastern Coastal Plain Zone of Odisha by University Extension Block programme (UEBP) of Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology, Odisha, India. Major constraints of traditional rice cultivation are low productivity in shallow lowland areas due to lack of knowledge and partial adoption of recommended package of practices by rice growing farmers. Therefore, present demonstration programmes have been undertaken to popularize/introduce stress tolerant rice var. Swarna sub-1 in flood prone and shallow lowland areas of Khordha district of Odisha, India. The present study revealed that there was 20.4% increase in average yield of demonstrated field over the farmers practice field of rice crop. An average yield of 45.68 q ha-1 was recorded in demonstration as compared to 37.84 q ha-1 in farmers practice during consecutive three years demonstrations. It might be due to considerable variation in the extent of adoption of improved/recommended technology which was resulted lower yield in farmers practice. Average technology gap, extension gap and technology index was found 12.32 q ha-1, 7.84 q ha-1 and 28.39%, respectively. The demonstrations with improved practice gave higher net return of Indian Rupee (INR) 18180, 26538 and 35605 ha-1 as compared to farmers practices with INR 12987, 16361 and 17294, respectively during Kharif seasons of 2016, 2017 and 2018. The benefit cost ratio (B:C ratio) of rice cultivation under improved practices were found to be 1.42, 1.60 and 1.80 as compared to 1.31, 1.38 and 1.39 under farmers practices. Moreover, the demonstration practice showed maximum 105.88% increase in net returns over farmers practice.