ICAR-IIRR celebrates 7th Foundation Day

18^th December, 2021, Hyderabad

The ICAR-Indian Institute of Rice Research, Hyderabad celebrated its 7^th Foundation Day today.

The Chief Guest, Dr. Tilak Raj Sharma, Deputy Director General (Crop Science), ICAR delivered the Padma Shri, Dr. S.V.S. Shastri Memorial Lecture on “Rice Improvement: New Breeding Technologies”. Dr. Sharma emphasized on the transformation of the Rice Breeding over the last 65 Years starting from conventional breeding, molecular breeding, GM rice and presently focussing on gene-editing techniques to increase yield, nutritional quality, resistance against biotic and abiotic stresses. The Rice varieties developed and released using the modern tool of molecular marker-assisted breeding were also underlined by the DDG.

The Guest of Honor, Dr. V. Praveen Rao, Vice-Chancellor, Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University, Hyderabad highlighted the role of water saving technologies in Rice cultivation.

The Guest of Honor, Dr. Himanshu Pathak, Director, ICAR-National Institute of Abiotic Stress Management, Baramati, Maharashtra urged the scientists for focusing on enhancing the nutrient use efficiency in Rice through the adoption of the various agro-technologies.

Earlier, delivering the welcome address, Dr. R.M. Sundaram, Director, ICAR-IIRR briefed about the Institute’s research achievements. He stated about the development of the 9 trait-added rice varieties by the Institute in the Year - 2021.

Dr. B.N. Singh, former Director, ICAR-National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, Odisha stressed on the need for reorienting the Rice Breeding in the country.

Dr. K. Krishnaiah, Former Director, ICAR-IIRR, Hyderabad urged for deploying the modern scientific tools for solving the recalcitrant problems in Rice as demonstrated by Dr. S.V.S. during the Green Revolution Era.

The Senior Officials of ICAR Institutes and Staff Members of ICAR-IIRR, Hyderabad also participated in the event.

(Source: ICAR-Indian Institute of Rice Research, Hyderabad)