The Hindu Business Line : `Rice year' activity planned

IN tune with the United Nations dedicating the year 2004 to rice, the Directorate of Rice Research (DRR) here in co-ordination with the Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI), Cuttack has planned to undertake a series of events throughout the year.

The first major activity would be a group meeting on Boro rice in Tripura on March 2 followed by an open day for the public to see the rice production technologies in Hyderabad on April 2, according to Dr B.B. Mishra, Project Director of DRR.

The annual rice group meetings in New Delhi during April 11-14 and the Eighth National Rice Biotechnology Network meeting following it from April 15 to 17, were other major events slated for the year, he said in a press release.

A number of national Governments and international institutions had come together to steer this important project alongside the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Dr Mishra said in the release.

The DRR is in association with the Andhra Pradesh Government is participating in the Agritex 2004 exhibition from April 9-13 in Hyderabad with a focus on rice.

Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), the parent body of both the DRR and the CRRI, has was appealing to all the State Departments of Agriculture, State Universities of Agriculture to organise local `Rice Day' during the crop season to display the transfer related technologies to the farmers.