- Cabinet recently approved a regional centre of IRRI
- Will be established in Varanasi
- It will be named as IRRI South Asia Regional Centre (ISARC)
- The ISARC will help in utilizing the rich biodiversity of India to develop special rice varieties. It will help India to achieve higher per hectare yields and improved nutritional contents. Further it will help to address India’s food and nutritional security issues.
IRRI:
- It is an international agricultural research and training organization with headquarters in Los Baños, Philippines.
- It is also the largest non-profit agricultural research centre in Asia.
- It was established in 1960 and has offices in 17 countries.
- It aims to reduce poverty and hunger, improve the health of rice farmers and consumers, and ensure environmental sustainability of rice farming.
- IRRI is known for its work in developing high yielding rice varieties that contributed to the Green Revolution in the 1960s.
- It advances its mission through collaborative research, partnerships, and the strengthening of the national agricultural research and extension systems of the countries IRRI works in.