Odisha: Union Agri Min inaugurates Central Genomics & Quality Lab at NRRI

Cuttack: Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Radha Mohan Singh today inaugurated the Central Genomics and Quality Laboratory facility at the National Rice Research Institute (NRRI) in Odisha’s Cuttack in the presence of Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

The state-of-the-art laboratory, inaugurated in record time of less than 3 years, will help the farmers in analyzing the quality of soil, water and produce; and accelerate the development of new varieties of rice, Singh said.

The laboratory complex has Environmental Soil Science Laboratory, Soil quality laboratory, Grain quality laboratory, Food proximate laboratory, Molecular Biochemistry Laboratory, Nutrition and sensory laboratory, Genomic Selection laboratory, Marker assisted selection laboratory, QTL mapping laboratory, Bioinformatics and SNP genotyping laboratory.

The Minister praised the NRRI for its stellar 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 immensely in country’s Green Revolution and steered groundbreaking research in development of high-yield rice varieties thereby helping achieve self-sufficiency in rice production.

“For ensuring nutritional security, for the first time in the world, the NRRI 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,” Singh said.

The Institute is working on developing and popularizing super-yielding varieties and agro-technologies for higher productivity, profitability, climate resilience and sustainability of rice farming, he added.

The Minister congratulated the NRRI for developing Mobile App ‘riceXpert’ which is helping in providing information to farmers in real time besides facilitating the flow of information from scientists to farmers.

On the occasion, Singh also inaugurated the front facade and circulating area at the Cuttack Railway Station, footover bridge and escalator on east side entry of the railway station, and a Post Office at Arunadoya market here.