

Bhubaneswar: The National Rice Research Institute (NRRI), Cuttack has developed a rice variety that has over 10% protein content.

"The new variety will help in reducing malnutrition," said director of NRRI A K Nayak. "This is a major breakthrough in the field of rice research. Generally rice varieties have around 7% protein," said Nayak.

He said the variety is awaiting approval of the Central Variety Releasing Committee, the apex body of releasing varieties in India. "Once approved, it will be sent for large seed production," Nayak said.

The new variety has been developed by crossing Assam rice collection - a high protein and low yielding variety with Naveen - a high yielding variety. NRRI has been doing research on the variety for the last 4 to 5 years. The variety will yield at least five tonnes a hectare, he added.

Nayak was here to attend the fourth interface meet of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) institutes, State Agriculture University (SAU) and state departments for 2015-16.

In the meeting, major concerns of farmers were discussed, including timely supply of quality seeds of potato, onion and pulses. "Creating of infrastructure for storage, irrigation, processing and value addition and marketing was also discussed," said Nayak.

This year, NRRI will emphasise on further research in aromatic rice varieties, production of green gram and black gram, which has reduced drastically over the years. "To tackle the effect of climate change, NRRI has been giving emphasis on integrated farming system but unfortunately various models developed in the laboratories are not transferred to the field," he said.

The NRRI also suggested the state government to develop miniature farm machinery at affordable prices to easily transfer scientific breakthroughs to field. An exhibition where institutions and organisations showcased their models and technologies for the benefit of farming community was organized on the occasion.



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