Basmati Rice

Long, slender-grained aromatic rice known as basmati is historically farmed in India, Pakistan, and Nepal. As of 2019, Pakistan made up the remaining 35% of the global basmati rice trade, with India accounting for 65% of it. Many nations consume domestically produced basmati rice, yet basmati is only farmed in specific regions of Pakistan and India.

 

APEDA, an agency of the Indian government, states that a rice variety can be named basmati if it meets a number of requirements, including having an average precooked milled rice length of 6.61 mm (0.260 in) and an average precooked milled rice breadth of up to 2 mm (0.079 in). 

 

•    Species: Oryza sativa

•    Cultivar group: Basmati

•    Cultivar: Basmati Sal, Basmati 370, etc.

•    Origin: Indian subcontinent

 

The word "basmati" is derived from the Hindi word "bsmat," which means "fragrant" in English, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. It is made up of the prefix "bs" (for "fragrance") and the word-forming suffix "-mat."

 

It is thought that basmati rice has been grown for many years on the Indian subcontinent. The Punjabi poet Varis Shah's 1766 epic Heer Ranjha contains the earliest reference of basmati rice. 

 

Over 70% of the world's basmati rice is produced in India. Only a minor fraction of that is organically farmed. Increased production of organic basmati rice is being sought for by organizations like Kheti Virasat Mission in the Indian state of Punjab.

 

The Indian states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Western Uttar Pradesh, and Jammu & Kashmir are those where basmati rice production has a geographical connotation.

 

Five million tons of basmati were produced in India overall during the crop year that ran from July 2011 to June 2012. India exported 4.4 million metric tons of basmati rice from April 2018 to March 2019. Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates were India's top three export destinations for basmati rice in 2015–2016, and exports to these three nations made up more than half of all basmati exports from India. India exported basmati rice worth US$3.4 billion in the years 2015–2016.

 

The original Basmatic region of Pakistan, according to the FAO, is located in the Kalar bowl, midway between the Chenab and Ravi rivers. In the Punjab province, where total production in 2010 was 2.47 million tons, almost all Basmati is grown. Exports of basmati totaled 890,207 tons worth $790 million in the 2020 fiscal year. Europe accounts for 40% of global basmati exports, with the remaining 60% going to the US, Australia, and Gulf nations.

 

With an estimated production capability of up to 8.2 tons per hectare, Indonesia generated its own regional variety of basmati in West Java and Central Kalimantan. When basmati seeds were originally imported from Pakistan in 2007, the soil wasn't suitable, so they couldn't be planted. In 2017, the Ministry of Agriculture succeeded in creating and cultivating a basmati-local rice hybrid.

 

The Terai region and some areas of the Kathmandu valley are where basmati rice is primarily grown. The export of distinctive kinds of basmati rice grown in Nepal was prohibited, though this restriction may be overturned.

 

In Sri Lanka's tropical wet zone regions, small amounts of basmati rice, particularly red basmati rice, are grown.

 

Due to the fragrance component 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, basmati rice has a flavor that is typically associated with pandan (Pandanus amaryllifolius leaf).

 

Natural levels of this aromatic chemical compound, which are roughly 0.09 ppm in basmati grains and 12 times higher in non-basmati rice varieties, are what give basmati its characteristic aroma and flavor. Various foods like cheese, fruit, and other cereals also have this natural aroma. It is a flavoring ingredient that has been given U.S. and European approval, and it adds scent to baked goods.

 

The amount of 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline reduces after cooking. Rice that has been soaked for 30 minutes before to cooking requires 20% less cooking minutes and retains more 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline.

 

The Canadian Diabetes Association claims that basmati, brown, wild, short, and long grain rice has a medium glycemic index (between 56 and 69), in contrast to jasmine and instant white rice, which has a glycemic index of 89, making it more suitable for diabetics than some other grains and goods made from white flour.

 

Basmati rice comes in a variety of flavors. Basmati 370, 385, and Ranbirsinghpura (R.S.Pura) and Gujjar Chack areas in Jammu province, which is located at the India-Pakistan border in Jammu and Kashmir, are traditional Indian varieties. 1121 and Extra Long Grain Rice from Muradabadi 6465. Super Kernel Basmati Rice, D-98, and PK 385 are the three basmati rice kinds grown in Pakistan.

 

Researchers at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute [IARI] in Delhi developed a hybrid semi-dwarf plant using standard plant breeding techniques that possessed the majority of the beneficial traits of conventional basmati (grain elongation, fragrance, alkali content). The crop yield of this hybrid, known as Pusa Basmati-1 (PB1; sometimes known as "Todal" because the flower bears awns), is up to twice as high as that of conventional kinds. The types RS-10, PB2, and sugandh-2 are fragrant rices that are not true basmati cultivars but are descended from basmati stock.

 

Basmati, type III Uttar Pradesh, P3 Punjab, and hbc-19 Safidon, Kasturi (Baran, Rajasthan), 386 Haryana, and Muradabadi Pusa 1121, Pusa 1718, Pusa 1509, Pusa 1692, Pusa 1637, Pusa 1401, Kasturi, Mahi Suganda, Basmati 6465, Basmati 198, Basmati 217, Basmati 370 Bihar, and Pusa 1401.

 

Basmati rice varieties include Basmati 370 (Pak Basmati), Super Basmati (Best Aroma), Basmati Pak (Kernal), 386 or 1121. Basmati 198, Chanab Basmati, Basmati 385, Basmati 515, and Basmati 2000.

 

•    In February 2019, the basmati variety known as baroma (basmati aromatik; aromatic basmati) was introduced in Indonesia.

 

•    This variation managed to pique the curiosity of potential middle-to-upper class consumers and could be grown in low-altitude terrain.

 

•    Texas is where basmati-based rice known as Texmati is farmed in the United States. RiceSelect, formerly owned by RiceTec, produces the rice.

 

•    In the Mwea district of Kenya, a type of rice known as Pishori or Pisori is farmed.

 

•    The word Pishori is a modification of Peshawari, from whence the basmati type used to be historically supplied to the nations of East Africa.

 

The Basmati Mark is a DNA-based certification performed by the Basmati Export Development Foundation laboratory (BEDF).

 

Basmati Rice was officially recognized as a product having Geographical Indication (GI) on February 15, 2016, by the Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), an independent entity under the Department of Commerce in India.

 

Due to the difficulty in distinguishing genuine basmati from other varieties of rice and the wide price disparity between them, dishonest dealers have been known to mix basmati rice with long-grain non-basmati varieties. Rice importers in Britain agreed to a code of conduct after the Food Standards Agency discovered in 2005 that almost half of all sold basmati rice was tainted with other long-grain rice varieties. Four out of 15 samples of rice from wholesalers were discovered to have cheaper rice mixed in with the basmati, and one sample had no basmati at all, according to a 2010 UK test. 

 

Adulterated and non-basmati strains can be identified using a PCR-based technique with a detection limit of 1% adulteration and an error rate of 1.5%, similar to DNA fingerprinting in humans.

 

For their consignments of basmati rice, exporters employ purity certificates based on DNA tests. The Indian business Labindia has released kits to identify adulteration in basmati rice based on this procedure, which was created by the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics. 

 

A U.S. corporation named RiceTec received U.S. Patent No. 5,663,484 on "basmati rice lines and grains" in September 1997. The patent protects lines of basmati and rice that resembles basmati as well as methods for testing that rice. Allegations of biopiracy at RiceTec, owned by Prince Hans-Adam of Liechtenstein, sparked uproar on a global scale. India threatened to take the matter to the WTO as a violation of TRIPS, the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, which had previously led to a brief diplomatic crisis between India and the United States. 

 

Most of the patent's claims were dropped or lost by RiceTec, both voluntarily and as a result of review decisions by the USPTO, most notably the right to brand their rice products basmati. In 2001, RiceTec received a more constrained varietal patent covering three of the company's newly created rice strains.