Rice institute gets Central Genomics and Quality Laboratory

Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Radha Mohan Singh inaugurated Central Genomics and Quality Laboratory facility at ICAR – National Rice Research Institute (NRRI) in Cuttack (Odisha) Tuesday. He praised the NRRI for its role in the development of agriculture not only in Eastern region but also at the national front. Since its inception in 1946, the Institute contributed in country’s Green Revolution and steered ground-breaking research in development of high-yield rice varieties thereby helping achieve self-sufficiency in rice production.
Singh said that for ensuring nutritional security, the Institute recently released two high-protein rice varieties (CR Dhan 310, CR Dhan 311) and two climate-smart varieties (CR Dhan 801 and CR Dhan 802), which are tolerant to both submergence and drought and few biotic stresses to face the challenges of climate change. He added that the Institute is working on developing and popularising super-yielding varieties and agro-technologies for higher productivity, profitability, climate resilience and sustainability of rice farming.
He said that the NRRI is the nodal agency for planning, implementation and monitoring of Bringing Green Revolution in Eastern India (BGREI) programme which is being implemented in 118 districts of seven eastern states. With its implementation, more than 25 per cent of yield increase has been recorded in the states of Assam, Bihar and Chhatisgarh, whereas 12-15 percent yield increase has been reported in Odisha, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Eastern Uttar Pradesh. Singh congratulated NRRI for developing Mobile App ‘riceXpert’ which is helping in providing information to farmers in real time besides facilitating the flow of information from scientist to farmers.