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International Rice Research Institute joins in celebrating 50 years of rice research in India 


April 20, 2015

IRRI staff and members of the Board of trustees (BOT) led by Director General Robert Zeigler and Deputy Director General for Research Matthew Morell participated in the Golden Jubilee Annual Rice Research Group Meeting (ARRGM) held at the Indian Institute of Rice Research (IIRR) in Rajendranagar, Hyderabad, 12-15 April. Important items on the agenda were to join IIRR staff in celebrating the milestone 50th annual meeting and to review the progress of the IRRI-India Work Plan (2013-16). Around 500 rice researchers and dignitaries from across India (photo) attended the four-day event and took the opportunity to interact with the visiting IRRI staff members.

At the inaugural session on Sunday morning, Zeigler expressed his appreciation of the contribution of Indian scientists to agriculture. “India’s initiative in 1965 by setting up an agency for rice research, now IIRR, was a model emulated the world-over. “India leads the world in food security and its strides in rice research have always been first-of-its-kind,” he said.

During a media briefing following the inaugural session (photo), Zeigler said that the importance of rice in India cannot be overstated. “The country must be able to feed itself and, in now doing so, a platform has been provided for economic development and a foundation for social growth,” he told reporters.

This year, IRRI researchers and their Indian counterparts joined in discussions on five key areas among the 24 joint projects that are being conducted under the Global Rice Science Partnership (GRiSP): system agronomy, breeding for unfavorable environments, yield enhancement, breeding for direct seeding, and the rice strategy for India and the future of the rice sector in the country.
 

Morell pointed out that IRRI’s commitment to strengthening its presence in India is exemplified by the presence of the Institute’s Board of Trustees in Hyderabad, which held its annual meeting at ICRISAT, 15-18 April.

He was pleased to see that the IRRI-India interactions are strong and the progress in the collaborative work plan is being made. “There is a lot of excitement around the technologies being used and the varieties that are coming through the breeding pipeline,” he said. “We have a great foundation to continue into the future.” In the photo (from left) are J.S. Sandhu, deputy director general (Crop Science) for the Indian Council of Agricultural Research; Gurbachan Singh, chairman of the Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board; and Dr. Morell.
 

During the ARRGM session on Wednesday, Sam Mohanty, IRRI's chief economist, said that India has reached the pinnacle in rice exports. “The country has come a long way in the past 5 decades from a country with a severe food deficit to being a major grain exporter.  Much of what Mohanty covered is in the April-June issue of Rice Today.
 



More news from: IRRI - International Rice Research Institute


Website: http://www.irri.org

Published: April 22, 2015

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