It is a well-known fact that rice has played an important role in people’s diets for thousands of years. This cereal grain was brought to Russia from Persia and was initially called «Saracenic millet». Russia began growing its own rice only in the 16th century. The country’s first attempts at harvesting the grain were carried out in the lower reaches of the Volga River and in the Kuban River wetlands. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Soviet government made the decision to bring rice cultivation to an industrial scale. As a result, in 1931 the Soviet Union’s only Institute for the Scientific Research of Rice was opened near the city of Krasnodar. In order for the institution to conduct its first projects, 2,000 types of grain from all over the world were brought to the institute. Russian scientists gradually developed their own varieties of rice that could adapt to the local soils and began to provide a stable yield. The structural policy, which stipulates the yearly and daily improvement in the quality of the rice, is based on the fact that plant breeders and farmers are working to develop new types of rice every day. Specialists work for more than ten years in order to develop a 1st-class grain that will work in Russian soil. See the entire rice-growing process – from grain development in the lab to packaging – in RTG’s new programme.