The Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) has developed 111 high-yielding rice varieties, including eight hybrids, and more than 300 rice production technologies, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said in a message on Thursday, 23 February, marking the institute's golden jubilee.

The prime minister congratulated BRRI's scientists and staff on 50 years of achievement. She said Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman gave BRRI institutional form through legislation in 1973, starting international-standard rice research. After independence he called for a green revolution to raise food production, and BRRI scientists soon developed the new variety BR-3, known as "Biplob" (revolution), which truly revolutionised food production. Over five decades the institute has made an outstanding contribution to feeding a growing population.

Among the varieties are ones tolerant of floods, drought, submergence, salinity and cold, disease-resistant varieties, premium-quality varieties, and zinc-, iron- and nutrient-enriched varieties. BRRI has also prepared two strategy papers, "Rice Vision-2050" and "Doubling Rice Productivity by 2030", which will serve as road maps for the Eighth Five-Year Plan, the Sustainable Development Goals 2030, the Perspective Plan 2041 and the Delta Plan 2100.

Despite a growing population, shrinking farmland and natural resources, and climate change, food production has risen almost fourfold in five decades, she said, and Bangladesh is now third in the world in rice production, having turned from a food-deficit to a food-surplus country. She said BRRI is in no way behind other countries and international institutes technologically, and expressed hope it would take on new challenges in rice research and help make food security sustainable in building a "Smart Bangladesh".

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.