President of India Inaugurates 2nd Indian Rice Congress at ICAR-NRRI, Cuttack
Honourable President of India Shrimati Droupadi Murmu inaugurated the Second Indian Rice Congress (SIRC-2023) on 11th February, 2023 at National Rice Research Institute (NRRI), Cuttack. Prof. Ganeshi Lal, Governor of Odisha and Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India were Guest of Honour on this occasion. Shri Ranendra Pratap Swain, Minister of Agriculture, and Farmers’ Empowerment, Fisheries & Animal Resources Development, Government of Odisha was the special guest. Dr. Himanshu Pathak, Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research & Education (DARE) & Director General (DG), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) welcomed the guests. Director of ICAR-NRRI, Cuttack, Dr. A.K. Nayak and Dr. P.K. Agrawal, ADG (TC) and President, ARRW and Dr. S. Saha, Organizing Secretary, ARRW were present on this occasion.
In her presidential address, she congratulated National Rice Research Institute for hosting the Congress and completing the platinum jubilee very recently with 75 years of glorious service to the nation. She mentioned about contribution of the Institute in Green Revolution in the country and development of biofortified and climate resilient rice varieties. Issues like preservation of traditional rice varieties and women empowerment in agriculture come up in her speech as well. She calls for all-out efforts by scientists, policy makers and other stakeholders to remove all odds like effect of climate change, pest-diseases, and other problems afflicting Indian agriculture.
Prof. Ganeshi Lal, Governor of Odisha in his speech said that scientists do develop technologies for the larger good which should reach the stakeholders timely. He wished that many key points and experts’ views will be emerged from the deliberations and a policy document will be prepared as future roadmap for rice development.
Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India noted with satisfaction that the agriculture sector in India performed well even during the severe Covid-19 pandemic and registered an all-time high production of 316 million tons of food grains as well as their exports contributing to the Global Food Security. He reiterated that many key provisions have been made for agriculture and farmers’ welfare in the budget, which laid emphasis for modernization of the agriculture sector through technology delivery and linking with the markets. Shri Ranendra Pratap Swain, Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment, Fisheries & Animal Resources Development, Government of Odisha also addressed the gathering and said that Government of Odisha is working in close coordination to increase the rice productivity beyond 5 t/ha. He mentioned about various state government scheme, flagship initiative of the state government, which is meant for encouraging capital investments in agriculture and allied sectors.
The theme of the Rice Congress is “Transforming Rice Research: Recent Scientific Developments and Global Food Crisis”, to be continued during February 11-14, 2023 organized by the Association of Rice Research Workers (ARRW), Cuttack, in collaboration with ICAR-NRRI, Cuttack; Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), New Delhi; International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines; National Academy of Agricultural Science (NAAS), New Delhi; ICAR-Indian Institute of Rice Research (IIRR), Hyderabad; and Society for Advancement of Rice Research (SARR), Hyderabad. The inauguration of this mega science conference was attended by about 500 participants comprising registered delegates, state officials, industry professionals, farmers and other stakeholders.
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