As many as 90 students of Krishna Public School (KPS), Dunda on Wednesday visited Dr RH Richaria Research laboratory and the biodiversity farms to study the various varieties of paddy being cultivated and conserved there.
Notably, the Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding functioning under Indira Gandhi Agriculture University, Raipur has managed to grow more than 23000 varieties of paddy in its farmland, a press release issued here stated.
This widespread Conservation Centre of Rice Germplasm stands as second largest Paddy Research Centre after Philippines situated International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the world.
The students led by Vandana Pandey and Domeshwari Sahu visited the laboratory. It has been developed with the financial support of Chhattisgarh Government and has been equipped all the modern machinery and facilities, the officials informed.
The Head of Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Dr SV Verulkar informed the students about the advanced machinery and DNA Marker Technique in an interesting and easy way.
The plant breeding expert, Dr GR Sahu and the Assistant Technician, RK Rao informed the students about different varieties of paddy through Rice Germplasm exhibition. The students then visited the farms to increase their knowledge about different varieties of paddy crop.