Students of Class XII visited the Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI), Cuttack, as part of their educational trip. On reaching, the students were taken to the auditorium where they were briefed on the idea behind establishing the Institute. They learnt about the outbreak of the devastating epiphytotic brown spot disease of rice in 1942 leading to serious shortage of rice and resulting in the Great Bengal famine of 1943.

Dr. Himanshu Pathak, Director CRRI interacted with the students and through a Power Point Presentation acquainted them on the process of production of rice and cited various situation and conditions in which rice can be cultivated. Students got to know how to cultivate rice even during drought or how a special variety of rice is developed for flood prone area.

Students also visited the ‘Oryza Museum’ of CRRI, which has a collection of items and scientific information on rice as well as its history and journey. They were amazed to see the beautifully presented information in form of posters, storytelling board, live samples, paintings etc. CRRI is one of the institutes of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) under Crop Science Division.