Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Radha Mohan Singh inaugurated Central Genomics and Quality Laboratory facility at ICAR - National Rice Research Institute (NRRI) in Cuttack (Odisha) today. He praised the NRRI for its stellar role in the development of agriculture not only in Eastern region but also at the national front. Since its inception in 1946, the Institute contributed immensely in country's Green Revolution and steered groundbreaking research in development of high-yield rice varieties thereby helping achieve self-sufficiency in rice production. Shri Singh said that for ensuring nutritional security, for the first time in the world, the Institute recently released two high-protein rice varieties (CR Dhan 310, CR Dhan 311) and two climate-smart varieties (CR Dhan 801 and CR Dhan 802), which are tolerant to both submergence and drought and few biotic stresses to face the challenges of climate change. He added that the Institute is working on developing and popularizing super-yielding varieties and agro-technologies for higher productivity, profitability, climate resilience and sustainability of rice farming.He said that the NRRI is the nodal agency for planning, implementation and monitoring of Bringing Green Revolution in Eastern India (BGREI) programme which is being implemented in 118 districts of seven Eastern states. With its implementation, more than 25% of yield increase has been recorded in the states of Assam, Bihar and Chhatisgarh, whereas 12-15% yield increase has been reported in Odisha, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Eastern UP. Shri Singh congratulated NRRI for developing Mobile App ‘riceXpert’ which is helping in providing information to farmers in real time besides facilitating the flow of information from scientist to farmers.Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan was also present on this occasion.