Impacts of drainage technology and its alternatives in the coastal barachouka basin - A case study

The agricultural activities in the low-lying coastal Barachouka Basin in Midnapore district of West Bengal had remained abandoned for about 200 years due to extreme soil salinity and water logging. To address the problem at the field level, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and the Government of West Bengal initiated the ‘All India Coordinated Research Project on Agricultural Drainage’ in 1983 with a view to develop site specific drainage technologies for land reclamation to ensure sustainable crop production and socio-economic improvement of the localfarming community. The findings have demonstrated that land drainage or its alternatives along with the other remedial measures were technically feasible, socially acceptable and economically viable to restore agricultural production by the resource poorfarmers. The technologies helped to brilag more barren and uncultivable area under reclamation programme, increasing cropping intensity, changing cropping pattern to include more remunerative crops and in maintaining soil health. The adopted technologies increased farm and family income in particular and promoted the socio-economic status of rural people, in general.