IARI organised Kisan Sampark Yatra to obtain farmers feedback

Why is in news? IARI organised Kisan Sampark Yatra to obtain farmers’ feedback of newly released IARI Basmati Varieties

The Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) organised the ‘Kisan Sampark Yatra’ during September 27-29 in the rice growing region of Haryana and Punjab to obtain farmers’ feedback on the three newly released IARI Basmati varieties.

The IARI had distributed 1 kg per acre seeds of the newly developed disease resistant Basmati rice to farmers during the Krishi Vigya Mela held at Pusa, New Delhi earlier this year for cultivation.

Basmati rice is an export commodity with annual forex earning of Rs. 25,053 crores during 2021-22.

Pusa Basmati rice varieties namely, Pusa Basmati 1121, Pusa Basmati 1509 and Pusa Basmati 6 occupy more than 90% of the area under Basmati rice cultivation in GI area of Basmati rice in India and account for more than 90% of the Basmati rice exports from India.

Bacterial blight and blast are the most devastating diseases in Basmati rice which cause significant yield losses as well as affect the Basmati grain and cooking quality.

Conventionally, these diseases are managed by use of chemicals like streptocyclin and tricyclazole.

However, there has been concerns raised by the importing nations especially from the European Union of use of some chemicals in Basmati rice, and in some cases rejection of Basmati rice consignments from the importers.

Basmati rice: Basmati, is a variety of long, slender-grained aromatic rice which is traditionally grown in India, Pakistan, and Nepal.

As of 2019, India accounted for 65% of the international trade in basmati rice, while Pakistan accounted for the remaining 35%.

Many countries use domestically grown basmati rice crops; however, basmati is geographically exclusive to certain districts of India and Pakistan.

Basmati rice varieties grown in seven states in the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) near the foothills of the Himalayas have been given the GI classification.

Punjab, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, sections of Uttar Pradesh, and Jammu & Kashmir are the states included.

Basmati rice needs specific climatic conditions to grow which is why it is cultivated in selected regions of India.

According to the Indian Government agency APEDA, a rice variety is eligible to be called basmati if it has a minimum average precooked milled rice length of 6.61 mm (0.260 in) and average precooked milled rice breadth of up to 2 mm (0.079 in), among other parameters.

India is the largest producer of Basmati rice with about 70 per cent share in global production.

Basmati rice constitutes one of India’s significant exports both in terms of soft power and hard money.

India is leading exporter of Basmati rice in the global market.

During 2016-17, India exported 40,00,471.56 MT of Basmati Rice.