IRRI to set up Regional Innovative Centre in Nellore

Nellore: International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is going to set up its Regional Innovative Centre in the district and for which a team of scientists from the institute visited proposed sites in and around Nellore on Saturday. Dr Matthew Morrell, Director General of IRRI, along with his team members inspected the lands for the proposed Regional Centre.

Vice Chancellor of Acharya NG Ranga Agriculture University V Damodar Naidu and District Collector R Mutyala Raju also accompanied the team of scientists for inspecting the lands at Pothireddypalem in Kovur mandal and at Narikellapalli panchayat under Muthukur mandal.

They interacted with local farmers in Narikellapalli village and enquired about groundnut crop being cultivated by the farmers. Dr Matthew Morrell enquired the farmers about yielding status of the crop. Further, the team of scientists visited Agriculture Research Station in Nellore and collected information about rice varieties developed by ARS scientists. They said the team was visiting to conduct a study on possibilities for setting up the Regional Innovative Centre as part of the MoU with the State government.

The MoU was inked with the State government in the presence of the Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu along with Agriculture Minister Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy at Amaravati on Friday. The Director General of IRRI has in principle agreed to establish an IRRI Regional Innovation Centre in Andhra Pradesh. Earlier, Agriculture Minister Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy visited the IRRI head office in Manila, Philippines, with a team of officials.

IRRI had already entered into an agreement with the Agricultural University to train its scientists, economists and statisticians in March last. It has already entered into an agreement to establish a satellite-based rice monitoring system in one of the campuses of the agricultural universities. Further, the Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had approved the establishment of IRRI, South Asia Regional Centre (ISARC) at campus of National Seed Research and Training Centre (NSRTC) in Varanasi. And, this would be the Regional Centre in South India.  

Collector R Mutyala Raju explained to team members about the feasibilities to set up Regional Centre in the district. Team of scientists included Nafees Meah, Aravind Kumar, Aldas Janaiah, Vikas Kumar Singh, Rubina Nisht, APIIC Chairman P Krishnaiah and Nellore RDO D Haritha were also present.