This centre was sanctioned during XII Five year plan and started functioning at ICAR-CIARI, Port Blair, A&N Islands as per ICAR Order NRM-1(21)/2014-SW&DF, Dated: 25-04-2014. The centre is situated in Agro ecological region 20 (Islands of Andaman-Nicobar, Hot humid to per humid islands) and located at 11.6234° N Latitude and 92.7265° E Longitude.
- Groundwater Quality Assessment: Assessment of ground water quality indicated seasonal variation. Out of 43 samples analyzed 16% exhibited moderate salinity and rest is good during the dry season. However, at the end of rainy season only 7% samples were exhibited moderate salinity. During the dry season the mean RSC was 0.64 (±1.59), SAR 0.84 (±0.29) and EC 1.47 (±0.44).
- Isolation and evaluation of effective microbes under saline conditions: Twenty salinity tolerant microbes have been isolated and characterized. Among the isolates Bacillus subtilis produced maximum IAA (34.9 µg/ml) and B. cereus solubilized maximum P (37.9 µg/ml), L. sphaericus produced maximum siderophore. All the isolates promoted root and shoot growth of brinjal seedlings and B. subtilis is highly significant in promoting seed germination
- Alternate land management in coastal saline environment to manage salinity: Different cropping system was evaluated in the raised beds made in the saline and waterlogged areas. The results showed that French bean-bitter gourd-bottle gourd gave high return with BC ratio of 2.0 in the beds while the surrounding land without intervention remained fallow. Fresh water fish can be successfully integrated into the crop production through raised beds technology and this helps to harvest rainwater as well.
- Vulnerability Assessment: The basic information regarding agricultural areas, crops, climate and elevation has been compiles. The vulnerability of different islands to the projected climate change and different scenarios are under study. Salinity in the coastal areas have been mapped the study will focus of increase in salinity due to sea level rise.
