The President Smt. Draupadi Murmu addressed the inaugural function of the 2nd Indian Rice Congress on February 11, 2023 at ICAR- National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack.
Today India is the leading consumer and exporter of rice, but when the country became independent, the situation was different. In those days we depended on imports to meet our food needs and the survival of the nation generally depended on sea imports.
A lot of credit for this goes to the National Rice Research Institute. This institute has also contributed immensely in improving the food security of India and the lives of the farmers.
ICAR-NRRI has developed India’s first high protein rice CR Dhan 310. In addition, NRRI has also released a high zinc rice variety named CR Dhan 315.
The first Indian Rice Congress 2020 was organized during December 8-9, 2020 at ICAR- National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack.
National Rice Research Institute
The Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI) was established on 23 April 1946. Dr. K. Ramaiah, eminent rice scientist was its founding director. In 1942, an outbreak of the devastating brown spot disease (Helminthosporium spp.) of rice in the then Bengal province caused a severe rice shortage. After that, the Central Government passed the proposal for its establishment.
International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)
It was founded in 1960 by the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations with the support of the Government of the Philippines. The headquarters of this institute is located in Los Banos, Philippines.
Golden Rice
Golden rice is conventional rice that has been genetically engineered to have higher levels of beta-carotene. Scientists extract beta-carotene from maize and synthesized in rice plants. By doing this the rice plants started producing orange pigment.
The breakthrough came in the year 1999, when two biologists, Ingo Potrykus of the Institute of Plant Sciences in Switzerland and Professor Peter Baer of the University of Freiburg, Germany, successfully developed golden rice. The first field trials of this rice cultivar were conducted in 2004 by the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center.
Two versions of golden rice have been developed so far-Golden Rice 1 and 2 are both japonica (glutinous, dried) rice.
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