Commerce Dept leaves basmati rice definition to Agri Ministry

New Delhi, Dec 13 The Department of Commerce has come to an “understanding” with the Ministry of Agriculture on the definition issue of basmati rice with the task now falling on the latter so that the new appellation for basmati would be in conformity with international agreements and the Indian Seeds Act.

On geographic indication

Official sources told here that at a recent meeting held under the Chairmanship of Commerce Secretary, Mr Gopal K. Pillai, it was made clear that there should not be any compromise on the geographic indication (GI) protection of basmati rice, while determining the definition so as to obviate the needless controversy.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the Commerce Ministry, the Agriculture Ministry, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Development Authority (APEDA).

The Agriculture Ministry made it clear that the GI region for basmati, i.e., the Indo Gangetic plain falls in both India and Pakistan. It was also pointed out that the basmati definition is currently not notified under the Seeds Act and it should be done forthwith.

Clarification

The representative of the Commerce Ministry clarified that the definition of basmati rice was framed under the Export of Basmati Rice (Quality Control of Inspection) Rules, 2003 since there was no definition of basmati rice in vogue at that point of time.

When contacted, Mr Pillai clarified that once the definition of basmati rice is in place by the Agriculture Ministry incorporating the essential components of GI, International agreements and Seeds Act, “we will get our definition modified” to reflect the new elements of the definition.

Definition task

Scientists at farm research centres are overly happy that the definition task has now rightly come to the Agriculture Ministry and hope that the emerging definition would definitely factor in all the relevant materials encompassing pedigree of rice, international agreements and Seeds Act.

The sources further contend that since the onus is now on the Agriculture Ministry for ensuring the supply of authentic basmati paddy and protection of GI for basmati, the Farm Ministry might have to draw blueprint and norms for supply of authentic basmati paddy seed to the growers.

To frame licensing norms

The Agriculture Ministry might toy with the proposal to frame licensing procedure on sale of basmati paddy seed to the growers to regulate and promote the authentic seed variety so that genuine basmati rice is produced.

The objective is to prevent sale of spurious seeds by vested interests which have developed stakes in the export of dubious basmati or basmati of questionable parentage. How far this could be implemented before the next sowing season which begins in April-May 2008 depends on how fast the official machinery is geared to the task on hand.

Exact geographical area

Trade policy analysts say that it is important to capture precisely the basmati paddy growing area in line with the GI of TRIPs (trade-related intellectual property rights) Agreement, since leaving the entire Indo-Gangetic plain would make basmati rice generic as there are wide variations in climate in this vast region. Hence, the task of defining the exact geographical area for basmati falls squarely on the Agriculture Ministry, entailing the sensitivities of other basmati rice growing States of Central and Eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala.

This is important because the reference in various raging legal battles on IRR over basmati clearly is to Punjab, Haryana, Western UP and Uttaranchal as unique to basmati rice in India.

Traceability mechanism

This also raises larger issue of establishing the traceability mechanism in basmati rice supply chain to verify the authenticity of the product as enjoined in the implementation of GI. Every transaction in basmati rice supply chain is required to be documented from the seed to store to ensure the GI and to justify the premium price being charged to the ultimate consumers. Hence, basmati rice exporters would do well to initiate a process in this regard for ascertaining traceability, before the importing countries insist on such information before long, the sources added.