IRRI’s Speed Breeding Facility Inaugurated by PM Modi

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IRRI’s state-of-the-art Speed Breeding (SpeedBreed) Facility was inaugurated yesterday by the Prime Minister. IRRI’s South Asia Regional Centre (ISARC) in Varanasi opened the facility following the Prime Minister’s laying the foundation stone for Amul’s Dairy Cooperative in Karkhiyao.

What is SpeedBreed Facility?
SpeedBreed has been developed in a little over two years since ISARC’s inception. Using advanced technologies and protocols, speed breeding is a new strategy used by plant breeders to accelerate varietal development.

With this new facility, the Departments of Biotechnology (DBT) and Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (DA&FW) will boost the breeding of new crop varieties, allowing Indian farmers to increase incomes while reducing their vulnerability to climate change.

Under normal conditions, the plant can advance only 1-2 generations per year. Under the facility, 39,200 rice plants can be advanced (at a time) for 4-5 generations per year.

According to estimates, new varieties can be developed in two to four years less through speed breeding. This facility will assist ISARC in developing biofortified, low GI, and resilient rice varieties faster.

Furthermore, ISARC is developing rice-based products using traditional rice varieties such as Kalanamak and Black rice, including cookies, biscuits, pasta, rice flakes, and fortified ice cream, to improve rural and urban consumers’ diets for better nutrition and to maximize the income of farmers growing these traditional landraces.

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