Assessing Assam’s rice landraces for sustainable and climate-resilient agriculture

The vulnerability of rice farmers in Assam to recurrent floods and frequent droughts is worsening due to climate change-induced weather anomalies and extreme events. This necessitates the identification of climate-resilient rice varieties from those already under cultivation. In the present study, 14 relatively promising traditional sali rice varieties drawn from a set of 40 prior-evaluated varieties and a modern early maturing variety (Kolong) as a check were evaluated by growing late in the sali season on 3 successive dates. In the study, at least two indigenous rice varieties viz., Aghonsali and Guarai-3 recorded good yield performance consistently over three dates of sowing and were at par with the check Kolong indicating the possibility of finding, from the photoperiod sensitive indigenous rice varieties, some suitable varieties for sowing over a protracted period and late in the sali season. With high mean performance over the three dates of sowing (m), near-unity regression (bi≈1), and deviation from regression approaching zero (S2di≈0), the varieties Basbor, Guarai-3, and Aghonsali along with Kolong appear to have general adaptability to staggered sowing during the late sali season of Assam. The study also revealed variation among the state’s indigenous sali rice varieties in the degree of photoperiod sensitivity.