India's Basmati rice exports is expected to get a further boost next
fiscal following the introduction of a new aromatic rice variety
developed by Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), under the
ministry of agriculture.
The new variety referred as Pusa Basmati 1509 does not shatter in
case of any delay in harvesting and has a superior grain quality
compared to major trait of Pusa 1121, the biggest rice variety currently
traded globally.
The new variety takes 120-125 days to mature as against 145-155
days taken by Pusa 1121, which has more than 70% share in India's
Basmati rice exports market. Yield wise, the new variety is expected to
give around 6.5 tonne per hectare against around 4.5 tonne reported for
the widely grown 1121 variety.
This variety is also set to help Punjab and Haryana farmers
dealing with issue of depleting ground water level as it takes lesser
time to grow.
India exported Basmati rice worth Rs 15,450 crore during 2011-12.
The first ever short duration long grained Basmati variety has
already undergone field trials in Punjab and is to be introduced on a
large scale in next year's Kharif season.
“We have been working on developing the new variety of Basmati
rice for the last six years and even the trial conducted at Patiala also
show encouraging result this year’s kharif. We hope to introduce the
new variety by next kharif season,” KV Prabhu, Head, Division of
Genetics, IARI told FE.
Pusa Basmati 1121 was released for commercial cultivation in
2003. This variety presently occupies more than 1.5 million hectare of
Basmati rice grown area estimated at around 2.6 mh.
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