Varsadhan, A Suitable variety of paddy in medium deep water logged ecosystem

On farm trials (OFT) were conducted by the Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Jagatsinghpur (Odisha), India in its adopted village to find out a suitable paddy variety for the low lying areas of east and south eastern coastal plain zone of Odisa. Tall high yielding rice variety "Varshadhan" (CRLC-899) released from National Rice Research Institute, Cuttak in 2006 for medium deep waterlogged farming situation was found to be better than all other ruling local varieties like Chakaakhi, Barhagali, Kalapatri, Panidhan and Kadalagaura. Grain yield of 3.812 t ha⁻¹ was recorded in Varshadhan against average grain yield of 2.668 t ha⁻¹ in all other ruling local varieties. The varietal substitution with the new variety by most of the farmers was also found to be more than 50%.