Designed for Khazan paddy fields
Shahin Bepari Lambe
Panaji: A new climate-resilient rice variety – Goa Dhan 5 – will be released next year after completing final field evaluations by the ICAR–Central Coastal Agricultural Research Institute (ICAR-CCARI), Goa.
Designed specifically for the state’s vulnerable Khazan paddy fields, the new variety promises to offer protection against two major challenges—salinity and prolonged flooding—which have become increasingly severe due to changing climatic conditions.
Manohara KK, senior scientist at ICAR-CCARI, said Goa Dhan 5 would mark a significant advancement over the earlier Goa Dhan varieties. “Unlike the previous varieties, Goa Dhan 5 has been developed to withstand saline soil conditions.
“It is designed to withstand and prolonged water stagnation caused by heavy rainfall, high tides and flooding,” he said.
The scientist explained that ICAR-CCARI initiated its rice improvement programme in 2009 with the objective of enhancing productivity in Goa’s saline Khazan lands, where farmers largely depended on traditional varieties such as Korgut and Asgo, which typically yielded only 1 to 1.5 tonnes per hectare.
The institute made its first breakthrough in 2017 with the release of Goa Dhan 1 and Goa Dhan 2, which offered higher productivity along with improved salinity tolerance. Building on this success, Goa Dhan 3 and Goa Dhan 4 were released in 2019 with enhanced performance under coastal saline conditions.
These improved varieties nearly doubled rice productivity in Khazan lands, increasing yields from about 1-1.5 tonnes per hectare to nearly 3 tonnes per hectare, providing a major boost to farmers cultivating the farmland in saline environments.
However, changing weather patterns soon posed a new challenge. From 2018 onwards, several low-lying paddy fields across Goa experienced repeated flooding due to intense rainfall, high tides and prolonged waterlogging. Many fields remained submerged for several days, resulting in crop losses.
Recognising the emerging threat, ICAR-CCARI scientists launched a breeding programme to develop a rice variety capable of tolerating both salinity and long-duration flooding. Their efforts have culminated in the development of Goa Dhan 5, which is currently undergoing its final phase of testing.
The ongoing kharif season is considered crucial for evaluating the variety under farmer field conditions before its formal release. Around 40 to 50 farmers in the state have been identified to receive seeds of Goa Dhan 5 for participatory field evaluation.
Preliminary results have been highly encouraging, with Goa Dhan 5 showing good performance in saline as well as flood-prone environments. Scientists believe the new variety has the potential to become a game-changer for rice cultivation in Goa’s low-lying Khazan ecosystem.
Researchers also emphasised the importance of conserving traditional rice varieties, noting that indigenous landraces continue to serve as valuable genetic resources for developing future climate-resilient and disease-resistant rice varieties.
According to ICAR-CCARI, Goa has nearly 8,000 to 10,000 hectares of salinity-affected Khazan lands.
