Basmati rice exporters seek early notification of Pusa 1121

New Delhi, July 2 More than a month after the Agriculture Ministry had brought evolved basmati rice varieties into the definition of basmati rice for export purposes, the lack of follow-up notification by the authorities till date has baffled rice exporters with substantial stakes in this variety.

The All-India Rice Exporters Association has unanimously endorsed the Agriculture Ministry’s recent definition of basmati rice including evolved varieties. The Association President, Mr Vijay Sethia, told here that the Punjab State Variety Approval Committee at Ludhiana and Punjab Agricultural University had recognised Pusa 1121 variety as basmati rice recently.

Farm scientists from ICAR contend that this variety would help in safeguarding the country’s food security.

This is not low-priced rice but a premium variety that fetches $2,000 to $2,400 a tonne in the overseas markets. Second, citing trade estimates, the sources in the industry say export of basmati rice has gone up from 7.71 lakh tonnes in 2003 to an estimated 14 lakh tonnes in 2008, even as the land for cultivation of notified and non-notified basmati varieties has barely grown by 2.8 per cent in these years.

After farmers increasingly went in for evolved basmati rice like Pusa 1121, they utilised 1.12 acres of land to produce one tonne of basmati rice, unlike in the past when two acres of land produced one tonne of basmati rice.
Calling for recognition

They argue that if Pusa 1121 were not introduced, the increasing export demand for basmati would have shifted large tracts of land from non-basmati rice cultivation to basmati in the absence of competitive minimum support price in comparison to dynamic basmati economics that gave more than assured returns.

But the advent of Pusa 1121 has also abated and addressed food security concerns as land for production of ordinary and non-basmati rice was not abridged. The sources further caution that if farming of Pusa 1121 is not appreciated by way of due recognition and notification, the basmati rice farmers would be compelled to adopt low-yielding notified basmati rice varieties, which might encroach upon non-basmati rice land too.

Mr Sethia said in the last three years evolved basmati rice has accounted for 60 per cent of basmati production and exports and except in the European Union where traditional basmati rice was dominating because of duty concessions, “the future of basmati rice of India lies with Pusa 1121 only because it uses less water, fetches maximum returns to growers and leaves consumers happy by retaining the essential features of basmati rice”.
Notification delay

When contacted about the delay in the notification of Pusa 1121 for export purposes after the definitional change was made, the Commerce Secretary, Mr Gopal K. Pillai, has said: “We have left the notification for the Agriculture Ministry” to decide.

However, Secretary, Department of Food and PDS, Mr T. Nanda Kumar, said his Ministry was steadfast in its stance that “low-priced rice” should not be exported and “we have no problem in exporting Pusa 1121 as long as you certify that it is an evolved basmati variety” and the total rice export does not exceed certain prescribed limits in the overall interest of the country’s food security.

He said the kharif crop outcome by October 2008 “holds the key for any relaxation of policy ban on rice export as we have to maintain a tricky balance” on the food front at this juncture.