Message by Director

At the outset I wish you a happy new year 2019  and welcome all the rice fraternity to IIRR website.

We are happy to know that the  fourth advance estimate  for 2017-18 projected the total food  grain production in the country to a new record level of 277.49 million tonnes and rice production also to a new  high  of  111.01 million  tonnes.  This year’s rice  production is higher by 9.36 million tonnes than the  previous record     production of 106.65 million tonnes during 2013-14. This has been largely due to cultivation of high yielding varieties and  hybrids as well as adoption of improved crop management practices developed by the rice scientific  workers  of  the country coupled with favourable monsoon.

The hybrid rice technology contributed towards an additional 4-5 million tonnes to the total rice production in the country and there is avast  scope for  increased adoption of  this technology   by   the farming   community   in future. Despite these achievements, we   still   need   to produce an additional 1.5-2 million   tonnes   of rice every year to meet the target of  130 million   tonnes   by 2025.  This  has  to be achieved in the context  of  increasing incidence of pests and diseases and other   abiotic  stresses and rapidly changing climate, rapidly declining water and  soil and degradation of  land resources.

Now it is high time to think about nutritional security in addition to food security and need to concentrate more on nutritional security in rice specifically for increasing zinc, iron and vitamin A.  Targeting nutritional security of the nation, ICAR-IIRR has been coordinating Consortia Research Platform (CRP) on Biofortification since 2014-15, encompassing rice, wheat, maize, sorghum and other millets in collaboration with National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) and National Institute of Animal  Nutrition and Physiology (NIANP). Significant  strides have been made in the development of  bio-fortified varieties in rice, wheat, maize and pearl millet, which are released and/or being evaluated under AICRP network. Bioavailability studies In-vitro identified DRR Dhan 45 with  50%  increased  intestinal  absorption  of zinc and two maize genotypes with ß carotene (100g) meeting 70% of recommended dietary Allowance (RDA).

The progress on the research front has highlighted several future targets and also constraints, which need to be addressed. ICAR-IIRR has evolved a ten point strategy to overcome and achieve the targets envisaged in Vision 2050. Though our food and nutritional security targets are high, the resources such as land, labour, water, etc. are limited. Under such a situation ICAR-IIRR along with the collaborators of AICRIP network is mainly focussing on the strategies for developing new biotic and abiotic stress resistant high yielding varieties / hybrids and  to improve rice production and protection technologies to achieve higher yields with lesser inputs. Further the flagship schemes such as CRP Biofortification, CRP-Agrobiodiversity, CRP-Molecular Breeding, CRP-Hybrid Technology and NICRA have also entered in their next phase, which will aid in achieving food and nutritional security along with climate resilient technologies. During the period, we have also revised our research projects to strengthen the collaboration with IRRI, Philippines