Arsenic resistant rice

I would like to draw the attention of the Agriculture department and the Public Health Engineering department of Assam on the arsenic poisoning in water and food. Arsenic contamination in drinking water and food is a serious problem and it silently affects the health of people. Almost every district of Assam has very high presence of arsenic in ground water. Long-term consumption of arsenic contaminated water and food cultivated in arsenic contaminated water causes various human development disease, skin cancer, lung cancer, kidney disease, diabetics etc. People from West Bengal, Assam and other northeastern States are suffering from such disease, mainly due to long-term consumption of arsenic contaminated water.

To overcome such health problems, the National Botanical Research Institution, Lucknow, West Bengal's Agriculture Department and Rice Research Station jointly develop a new variety of arsenic resistant rice "Muktoshree"( Scientific name IET21845 ). This newly developed variant of high yield thin rice is highly arsenic resistant and consumption of this rice in the arsenic affected areas of West Bengal and Northeast India will benefit thousands of people in future. Rice is the primary food items of Assam and other northeastern states. Assam also produces a significant amount of rice every year. In this view the State Government of Assam must also introduce and promote cultivation of this specific variant of rice to the farmers of arsenic affected areas. Through your newspaper I would like appeal to the Government of Assam to create awareness among the farmers to use more and more arsenic resistant seeds into farming. The Government of Assam also lays emphasis on development of arsenic resistant seeds and food grains which are cultivated largely in Assam. There is no other solution for detoxifying arsenic from ground water. Therefore, only cultivating arsenic resistant food grains will help overcome the problem of arsenic.

Santom Rajkhowa,

Jorhat, Assam.