Plan to contain salinity ingress in Gujarat

The Gujarat agriculture department has worked out a Rs 12.98 crore plan to address the problem of salinity ingress in the state. The problem is acute in the state, with a coastline of 1600 kms (the longest in the country).

The plan is targeted at 12,400 hectares covering four coastal districts where the problem is more pronounced.

The scheme is to be implemented on a priority basis in the Dhandhuka Dhrol area of southwest Ahmedabad, Hansot area of southwest Bharuch district, Olpaad and Choryasi areas of Surat district and Jalalpore area of Navsari district.

"Salinity ingress is playing havoc with land in the coastal areas of the state and we hope that, with the implementation of this scheme, we will be able to check this problem," state agriculture minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama said.

Hundreds of hectares of land in the coastal areas have been rendered fallow because of salinity ingress. Keeping aside the agricultural aspect, salinity ingress has affected even urban areas like Surat city where a major part of the underground water table has become saline.

Many housing societies and high-rise apartments in the western and southwest areas of the city have water with such high salt content that the water pipes get corroded within days.

"You can neither use the water for bathing, cooking or washing," said a resident of Adajan Patia near Surat.

This reason why second-hand cars from Surat are priced much lower than those from Vadodara or Ahmedabad could be that most cars from Surat have their bodies completely corroded because of the saline water.

Along with salinity ingress, to tackle the increasing problem of "Ganda Baval" (acacia) in north Gujarat and Kutch, the Gujarat government has decided to plant several Neem trees. In the just concluded monsoons, more than 14,490 kg neem seeds have been planted in the three districts of Kutch, Banaskantha and Patan.

"The neem tree would tackle the problem of ganda baval which keeps on growing every where," Chudasama said.

Discussing new policies being formulated by the agriculture department, Chudasama said his department has worked out a new policy of "Laboratory to land".

Under this policy, the department is setting up 62 research centres and 17 training centres across the state to ensure that the farmers get the latest in the research which they could in turn implement in their fields.

"Officials and scientists of the department will be present at these centres on every Monday and Tuesday ", Chudasama said. Of the total 742 scientists working with the department, each taluka in the state has been allotted three scientists each.

Similarly on the water harvesting front, a Rs 489-crore World Bank-aided project will be undertaken in the state shortly. A team of officials of the World Bank and from the Central Government has already visited Gujarat for this project which would cover 2.74 hectares of land in the state covering 407 villages.