RABINDRA NATH CHOUDHURY  :  BHUBANESWAR 

THE RICE WILL SAVE FUEL AS IT REQUIRES NO COOKING

Scientists at the Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI) at Cuttack, nearly 25 km from here, have developed a new variety of rice that requires no cooking. "The `ready-to-eat' rice, named aghani bora, can be consumed after soaking in water for 45 minutes at normal room temperature", director of CRRI Tapan Kumar Adhya said here on Tuesday.

The specially-developed strain of rice comes under soft rice category.  The CRRI scientists, who developed the grain, were inspired by kamal saul, a soft rice originally grown in cool climates like Assam.

Until now, these low yielding grains have not grown outside north-east, but the scientists at the Central Rice Research Institute, one of the premier research institutes on grains in the world, developed a hybrid of traditional soft rice with a high-yielding variety of regular rice, that could be grown in different climates across India.

"The field trials of the new variety are already positive, suggesting that it could be grown in other areas of the country where temperature and humidity levels are high", he said.

"Just simply soak it in water and the rice is ready to eat, but the quality of water has to be clean and potable.  The idea is to avoid any waterborne disease", he pointed out.  The rice could be of immense help to the people, particularly the poor, as it requires no cooking and saves fuel.