India: IRRI research head meets with research partners

Matthew Morell, deputy director general-research of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), toured in India to review on-going IRRI collaborative activities and projects with Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI), Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT), IRRI’s South Asia Breeding Hub at ICRISAT, and Bihar Agricultural University (BAU) on 12-20 October 2014. Dr. Morell was accompanied by Drs. Arvind Kumar, Sudhanshu Singh, Sudhir Yadav and Manzoor Dar.


At CRRI, Dr. Morrel spent much time in the field - both on-station and on-farm involving collaborative projects with STRASA and CSISA. Dr. T. Mohapatra, director of CRRI, appreciated Dr. Morell’s visit and said it further strengthened the CRRI-IRRI partnership and boosted the morale of scientists working on IRRI’s various collaborative projects at the Institute.

At OUAT, Dr. Morell discussed an array of issues revolving around agriculture in Eastern India with Vice Chancellor Manoranjan Kar, university officials, scientists and students. Prof. Kar stressed the long-standing collaboration between OUAT with IRRI which has contributed to the growth of agricultural science and farming communities. Prof. Kar also expressed his happiness over the PG and PhD research scholars of OUAT working in collaboration with IRRI and hoped that more students and scientists would be part of the program in the future.

Dr. Morell and the team of IRRI scientists visited farmers’ field in Puri district and the CSISA Project demonstration sites on DSR. He expressed his happiness at the successful adoption of the technology by the farmers within a short period.

At Hyderabad, Dr. Morell reviewed the progress of the research programs as well as facility development at IRRI South Asia Hub. He met with senior ICRISAT management and thanked them for their support to IRRI South Asia Hub. Dr. Morell also visited Syngenta Research and Processing facilities for an update on the IRRI-Syngenta SKEP proposals. He also met with senior administration as well as scientists at Dupont and discussed how IRRI and Dupont can join hands to deliver better services to farmers.

At BAU, Dr. Morell reviewed the IRRI-BAU collaborative research and dissemination activities.  Dr. M. L. Chaudhary, vice chancellor, thanked IRRI scientists for working very closely with BAU scientists. He emphasized the need for more concentrated efforts to strengthen IRRI-BAU collaborative research and suggested sponsoring some BAU students every year to do their research work at IRRI HQ under sandwich program to help build a new generation of rice scientists.

Dr. Morell also visited the outreach program of IRRAS and STRASA in Bhagalpur and Banka districts, and the NFSM demonstrations of Chierang-Sub1 and Sahbhagi dhan at Agarpurmachipur and Nayatola organized by GUEVVS, a non-government organization. Ms. Meenaxi Singh, the convener of GUEVVS, welcomed the team and expressed her deep gratitude on behalf of small holder farmers for supporting technology dissemination activities in Bhagalpur. Farmers seemed very happy with the performance of these new lines and opined that they would grow only these stress tolerant lines/varieties in the future as their characteristics meet the specific conditions of their area.

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