Hyderabad: City-based Indian Institute of Rice Research (IIRR) in collaboration with its parent body Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) held an interactive farmer-scientists meet on ‘Climate Resilient Agriculture’ mooted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
During the event held on September 28, the two institutes arranged a meeting with 100 farmers from Ranga Reddy and Wanaparthy districts, allowing them to discuss challenges faced with regards to farming along with inputs from scientist on technologies related to rice and oilseed crops.
As part of the ‘Climate Resilient Agriculture’ meet, Prime Minister Modi delivered a keynote address virtually to farmers across the nation, laying emphasis on the two principles ‘back to basics’ and ‘march to the future’ as he spoke of combining traditional farming with modern technology. He then launched 35 climate change resilient varieties of crops, said a press release from IIRR.
Among the newly launched crop varieties, five have been developed by ICAR-IIRR in collaboration with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), added the press release from the institute
The varieties include DRR Dhan 57, which is a short duration aerobic rice variety. It requires lesser water. Another rice variety DRR Dhan 58 is a medium slender grain type and resistant to bacterial blight disease and tolerant to salinity. Similarly, the DRR Dhan 59 rice variety also has long slender grain type and is resistance to bacterial blight.
Explaining the benefits of the climate resilient varieties, Dr. R. M. Sundaram, director, ICAR-IIRR said, “The development and release of the climate change resilient rice varieties can go a long way in mitigating the problems faced by farmers and earn more income in the realm of a rapidly changing climate”.