{"id":9325,"date":"2026-09-08T15:29:06","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T15:29:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agamiduniya.in\/?p=9325"},"modified":"2026-09-08T15:31:49","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T15:31:49","slug":"irri-to-boost-kalajeera-specialty-rice-cultivation-empower-rural-micro-entrepreneurs-in-odisha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agamiduniya.in\/?p=9325","title":{"rendered":"IRRI to promote black cumin and specialty rice cultivation, empower rural micro-entrepreneurs of Odisha"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Bhubaneswar, September 8, 2026 [ADN]<\/strong><br>In a major step toward transforming the state&#8217;s agricultural landscape, a meeting was held at the LSB Chamber between the Hon\u2019ble Deputy Chief Minister, Minister of Agriculture &amp; Farmers&#8217; Empowerment, Energy Shri Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo with a delegation from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines, to scale up the cultivation, value addition, and commercialization of indigenous specialty rice, with a central focus on Kalajeera rice. Held at the LSB Chamber, the meeting was attended by Shri Sachin Ramchandra Jadhav, Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Agriculture; and an IRRI delegation led by Dr. Nese Sreenivasul, Principal Scientist. The visiting IRRI team also featured Dr. Mukund, Head of IRRI Odisha; Dr. Hameeda, Scientist and Product Development Specialist; Dr. Priyabrata Roy, Project Coordinator for Rice Value Addition; and Mr. Gyandeep Pandia, Agribusiness Expert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Under this IRRI will provide advanced technical collaboration to preserve the signature aroma, pure genetics, and superior quality of Odisha&#8217;s native specialty rice varieties\u2014including health-focused Low-GI (Glycemic Index) rice. To incentivize area expansion, the state plans to position Kalajeera rice as a primary demonstration project, allowing farmers to capitalize on higher Minimum Support Prices (MSP) and favorable market valuation. The initiative also targets economic optimization by developing value-added food products from broken rice, supported by the setup of localized raw rice mill units and regional processing infrastructure designed to empower rural farmers and women&#8217;s groups as micro-entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Beyond technical discussions, the visit served two key strategic objectives. The IRRI delegation formally extended an official invitation to the Hon&#8217;ble Deputy Chief Minister and State Government for the upcoming National-Level Buyer\u2013Seller Business Meet, titled &#8220;Beyond the Bowl,&#8221; to maximize market linkages and stakeholder participation. Additionally, the visit facilitated an international knowledge exchange with IRRI scientists from the Philippines under the joint &#8220;Promoting Women Entrepreneurship through Rice Value Addition&#8221; project, fostering the cross-border sharing of best practices in post-harvest processing and sustainable, women-led agribusiness. Through this partnership, Odisha aims to preserve its indigenous agricultural heritage while building a resilient, market-driven enterprise model for its farming community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bhubaneswar, September 8, 2026 [ADN]In a major step toward transforming the state&#8217;s agricultural landscape, a meeting was held<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-31"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agamiduniya.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agamiduniya.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agamiduniya.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agamiduniya.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agamiduniya.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9325"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/agamiduniya.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9329,"href":"https:\/\/agamiduniya.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9325\/revisions\/9329"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agamiduniya.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agamiduniya.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agamiduniya.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agamiduniya.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}