Performance Evaluation of Stress Tolerant Rice Variety Swarna Shreya under Front Line Demonstration in Bolangir District, Odisha

Rice is the major crop of Odisha with a total coverage of 41 lakh ha which is about 65% of the total cultivable area of the state. Area under rice crop in Bolangir district is 218.97 thousand ha. Bolangir District is located under Western Central Table Land Agro climatic Zone characterized by hot and sub humid climate. About 168.91 thousand ha rice is under rainfed condition. Drought is a major abiotic stress that adversely affects the rice growth, mostly in the rainfed ecosystem that ultimately affects the biomass production and yield. Front line demonstrations have been conducted in NICRA adopted village- Odiapali, Block- Bolangir in the Kharif season of the year 2022 and 2023. The percentage increase in yield is 13.63 and 14.61 and net return is Rs 42,200/- and Rs 43,444/- per ha as compared to farmer’s practice variety Swarna’ performance respectively for the year 2022 and 2023.