Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare of the Government of Odisha reaffirms state support to IRRI’s research programs

Marking the World Food Day, Dr. Arabinda Kumar Padhee, Principal Secretary of the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare of the Government of Odisha, visited IRRI’s program sites in Puri, Odisha, reaffirming support towards food sustainability. The State Policymaker and Administrator was accompanied by several key agriculture officials including the Chief District Agriculture Officer (CDAO) of Puri.

During the visit, a varietal cafeteria also known as nutritional cafe was presented to the delegation. The crop cafeteria has 12 newly released rice varieties that are rich in micronutrients such as zinc and protein. IRRI, with the support of the Government of Odisha and its associated agencies, has been developing and evaluating several high yielding varieties (HYV), stress tolerant rice varieties (STRV), and biofortified varieties under the Institution’s umbrella strategy called One Rice Breeding. This strategy includes comprehensive seed system initiatives and breeding research programmes to evaluate and position new varieties in farmers’ fields.

Dr. Padhee also observed a unique comparative trial of direct seeded rice (DSR) and puddled transplanted rice (PTR) as facilitated by the IRRI Agronomy and Seed System team. For the past few years, IRRI has been actively scaling up the promotion of DSR in the state. “Such comparative experiments of technologies and processes will help farmers to choose what is best for them”, Dr. Padhee shared. He further expressed his appreciation of the benefits of early maturity under DSR and good crop stands of different varieties that participated in the experiment such as the Binadhan 11, Binadhan 17, MTU 1156, BRRI dhan 75 as well as other popular Bayer hybrids such as the Arize 6411 and Arize Tej Gold. The research and delivery efforts around DSR as a comprehensive technology in the state is further strengthened through IRRI, in collaboration with Bayer, convergence of the new…