Soil and water has drastically changed at the entire southern region of Bangladesh after the devastating cyclones, Sidr and Aila. Salinity has increased in the soil. In 2010, we talked with the Aila affected farmers in Satkhira's Shyamnagar regarding how they were cultivating paddies in a changed agricultural setting. We could only capture images of despair.

Farmers expect a particular rice variety which will survive even in extreme saline water and soil conditions. Ministry of Agriculture has informed us about their initiatives regarding saline-tolerant rice varieties at the saline-affected regions.

According to SRDI, IRRI and BRRI, Bangladesh has a total 1.5 million hectares of saline land. Among these lands, the salinity level in nearly 0.8 million hectares is below 10 dS/m. Though at farm level, farmers have received varieties which can stand below 10 dS/m, but the results were not that impressive. Elsewhere, more than 0.3 million hectares of saline land is still deprived of cultivating rice. The situation is getting worse every day. A large area is being affected by water-logging and salinity. Let us try to find out where our scientists are heading with their research.