The harsh summer sun was beating down their backs, yet farmers in Assam’s Borborua block in Dibrugarh district went about their paddy cultivation. Waddling through paddy fields submerged in the rainwater of the past few weeks, they hummed songs and chatted as they planted Betguti (Oryza sativa), an indigenous variety of rice that holds the promise of withstanding the increasingly unpredictable weather — erratic rainfall and long dry spells.
Once the planting is done, they will release freshwater crabs in the field. Alongside the rice, the crabs will grow too, sustaining each other and offering the women a way to sustain their families amid rising concerns of climatic change and land degradation .
This women-led integrated rice-crab farming method is emerging as a climate-resilient alternative to traditional paddy cultivation in Assam.
Climatic changes challenge traditional ways
Traditionally, paddy-fish farming has been practiced in pockets of Assam, particularly areas that are vulnerable to floods. In this type of farming, fish spawns are either introduced in the flooded fields where the indigenous Bau-dhaan rice variety is grown, or enter the fields during monsoon from adjacent water bodies and grow along with paddy. “This integrated farming practice in which fish is grown as a ‘second crop’, however, has become challenging because of the long dry spells that Assam has been witnessing,” said Samir Bordoloi, a farmer and advocate of natural farming techniques. “Now, we have heavy spells of rain, and then long dry spells,” he said. “Rearing fish during these dry spells is not easy.”
Erratic weather patterns have also had an impact on agriculture as a whole, including paddy cultivation. In such a context, hybrid rice varieties promise better productivity, he says. According to the Economic Survey of Assam 2025-2026, hybrid rice cultivation area (as a share of total rice cultivation area) in the state has grown from almost 8% in 2018-19 to nearly 13% in 2024-25. High-yielding varieties of rice span 74%.
“But even those hybrid varieties cannot tolerate long dry spells,” Bordoloi said. The indigenous Betguti, on the other hand, is climate resilient, can withstand long dry periods and can be planted until late July — at least a month after the usual planting cycle. It is ready to be harvested in 150 days.
Giving indigenous rice a chance
In 2025, a conversation between Bordoloi and officials of the Assam State Rural Livelihood Mission (ASRLM) on promoting organic farming, steered towards indigenous varieties of rice. ASRLM leads a women-led organic and natural farming programme across 219 blocks in the state. It was an opportunity, according to Bordoloi, to use this platform to encourage the cultivation of indigenous varieties of rice. “Instead of monoculture, we spoke about integrated farming, like fish-paddy farming, through which farmers can have more than one source of income,” he said. “But instead of fish, our local variety of mud crabs seemed more viable because of climatic changes.”
With the support of ASRLM, the Narayanpur block of Lakhimpur district was chosen for this project that started the same year. The indigenous Betguti seeds were procured from Kusherswar Kochari, a farmer in a different district.
Nikumoni Bora, a farmer, stepped forward to try this crab-paddy farming on one bigha (0.33 acres) of her farmland. For Nikumoni, the primary motivation was personal. She wanted to save indigenous varieties of rice from disappearing.
“In my block, we mostly grow indigenous varieties of rice,” she said. “But hybrid rice is also being grown in patches. It is becoming difficult to predict the weather; so as a farmer myself, I understand the need to diversify,” she said. The aim, therefore, is not to make “hybrid rice disappear” but to “save indigenous rice from being lost”.
Along with Nikumoni, 79 other women — Krishi Sakhis, or Community Agriculture Care Service Providers under ASRLM — stepped in to plant Betguti. After the saplings took root, they released crabs in the field too.
How crabs supported rice cultivation
In the paddy fields, the crabs played an important role. “They ate the pests of the crop,” Nikumoni said, “And as they grew, I realised that the soil in the field became soft because the crabs were aerating it, which helped the rice plants grow better.”
Her observation is backed by research. Studies on rice-crab farming have shown improvement in soil nutrient levels, rice productivity and nutrient uptake, soil fertility, soil carbon and C:N ratio, biodiversity, water purification, and effective utilisation of available resources in the form of land and water.
Other research has found that aquatic animals in rice paddies reduce weeds, increase yield, and help maintain stable soil nitrogen. Pallab Kumar Sarma, chief scientist, All India Coordinated Research Project for Dryland Agriculture (AICRPDA), at the Biswanath College of Agriculture, finds this form of integrated farming promising, “to increase farmers’ income and ensure nutritional security. It is also sustainable, because it reduces the use of agrochemicals and pesticides,” Sarma added.
Nikumoni harvested nearly two quintals of rice from the 8 kilogram seeds that she planted on her land. The crabs, meanwhile, grew four times in three months, and she sold them in the local market at ₹300-400 per kilogram. Some of the harvest was also saved for consumption at home. She also sold seeds of the indigenous rice variety. In the past year, she earned ₹1.35 lakh (₹135,000), which supplements her family income and the honorarium she receives as a Krishi Sakhi.
