Issues in Infrastructure for Export of Rice from India

Rice is exported in two varieties, basmati (aromatic) and non-basmati. The basmati rice exports are in three categories: white, brown and parboiled. India earned Rs 18.4 billion in 2001-02 from exports of basmati rice and non-basmati rice contributed Rs 13.3 billion for the same period. This paper focuses on promoting rice exports, for which infrastructural and policy requirements are discussed.

Range and Limit of Geographical Indication Scheme: The Case of Basmati Rice from Punjab, Pakistan

Basmati is well renowned as the most aromatic rice over the world. Populated urban markets are prone to accept a premium to Basmati, whom price is the highest for rice on trade and domestic markets. Punjab province represents 90% of overall Basmati rice production in Pakistan since immemorial times. This area forms the genuine alluvial lands appropriate for Basmati cultivation. Due to its price premium, some opportunist behaviors appear such as cropping blending of polished long grain from other varieties. The need of protection is clearly documented, but the registration of a Geographical Indication, will probably increase Basmati market shortages.Basmati rice, Marketing, Commodity chain, Geographical Indication, Pakistan, Marketing, Q10, Q13, Q15,

Milling, Nutritional, Physical and Cooking Properties of Four Basmati Rice Varieties

Rice is one of the most popular staple foods produced contributing higher most in agriculture gross domestic production in Nepal. Thus, nutritional, physicochemical, and cooking properties of rice might interplay important roles in their production and farming practice, therefore, it is inevitable to understand these characteristic features. However, there has been only limited information available on such properties, therefore we aimed to examine nutritional, physicochemical and cooking properties of four Basmati varieties of rice namely Red Basmati, White Basmati, Black Basmati and Pokhareli Basmati. These rice varieties were purchased from different places in Nepal in paddy form. In this study various parameters associated with milling, nutritional, physical and cooking properties were evaluated. To measure protein contents in rice, Kjeldal method was implied. Among the varieties, the protein content was maximum in Red Basmati (7.74%) and minimum in Black Basmati (6.51%). The milled rice percentage and head rice recovery were maximum in Pokhareli Basmati represented by 72.02±0.10 and 67.46±0.42, respectively, while and minimum in White Basmati represented by 68.17±0.50 and 65.11±0.28, respectively. The kernel elongation ratio and volume expansion ratio was maximum in Red Basmati represented by 1.62 and 2.85 respectively. Water uptake ratio was maximum 3.11 in Black Basmati and minimum of 2.18 in Red Basmati. Gruel loss was found lowest 1.05% in Red Basmati and highest represented by 2.40% in Black Basmati. The highest starch iodine blue value of 0.21 was observed in Red Basmati and lowest of 0.12 in Black Basmati. The Red Basmati was found to have the better cooking quality among all varieties

Intellectual Property Right on Basmati Rice: Current Scenario and Evidences of Origin, Diversity, Cultivation and Use Values of Basmati Rice in Nepal

Basmati rice, also called the king/prince of rice landraces has very special values in Nepalese society as well as in other countries of Indian Subcontinent. With the objectives of collecting, analyzing and documenting Basmati related information in Nepal, we visited different sites; carried out key informant surveys; organized focus group discussions, online interaction and discussion meetings; requested all relevant offices/ persons/ stakeholders through phone, website, and letter to share information; organized high level official meeting, and Basmati rice expert meeting; documented video documentary and did online as well as library search. Because of its high market value at global level, many countries and organizations have been attempting to get intellectual property rights (mainly patent and geographical indication tag) on Basmati rice. India applied for GI tag to Basmati rice in the European Union (EU) in July 2018, and Nepal submitted opposition letter along with proofs and evidences of origin, diversity, cultivation and use values of Basmati rice on 9 December 2020. A total 133 Basmati type rice landraces are grown in 60 districts of Nepal. Basmati rice is traditionally grown, sold, and consumed in geographically localized areas of Nepal since ancient time. International and national scientists have defined lower altitude of Nepal as one of the centers of origin of Basmati rice. Many Nepalese basmati rice landraces have been characterized and evaluated using morphological traits, isozymes and DNA markers. Four basmati type of rice landraces have been registered in National Seed Board. Many community seed banks have maintained different types of Basmati rice landraces. National Agriculture Genetic Resources Center and International genebanks have collected more than 80 and conserved 68 basmati landraces. Basmati rice landraces have geo-linked traits. The historical culture of production, consumption and marketing of native basmati rice in Nepal should always be favored by both national and international rules and regulations. Nepal has ample and valid evidences to get geographical indication (GI) right on Basmati rice

Identification of rice blast disease-suppressing bacterial strains from the rhizosphere of rice grown in Pakistan.

Sixteen bacterial strains isolated from the roots and rhizosphere of rice plants growing in saline and non-saline soils from the Shorkot area of Pakistan were tested for their ability to promote plant growth and reduce the incidence of rice blast disease. When applied to the soil, many of the isolated rhizobacterial strains increased seedling growth and/or suppressed rice blast disease in greenhouse-grown plants of the cultivars Super Basmati and Azucena, but each cultivar responded to different subsets of the bacteria. In the cv Super Basmati, increased blast resistance was correlated with the production of siderophores by the rhizobacteria. Several strains inhibited the growth of the causative agent of rice blast disease, the fungal pathogen Magnaporthe grisea, in an in vitro dual culture assay. Direct bioantagonism was correlated with disease resistance in Super Basmati, but not in Azucena, and direct antagonism as a cause for the reduced disease incidence is also unlikely since no epiphytic colonisation of leaves was detected. Rhizosphere colonisation by the bacteria in plants grown in sterile sand was correlated with disease resistance in Super Basmati, but not in Azucena. As well as the differences in strains that protected each cv against blast disease, we also found that there were differences in the ability of some strains to protect plants against blast depending on soil type. Hence, there are complex interactions between rhizobacteria and rice plants with respect to biocontrol of rice blast disease, dependent upon both rice cv and soil type. The identity of strains that promoted high levels of disease protection, including three that performed well across all plant cultivars and growth conditions, was determined by 16S rRNA gene sequencing

Cultivating compliance: governance of North Indian organic basmati smallholders in a global value chain

Focusing on a global value chain (GVC) for organic basmati rice, we study how farmers’ practices are governed through product and process standards, organic certification protocols, and contracts with buyer firms. We analyze how farmers’ entry into the GVC reconfigures their agencements (defined as heterogeneous arrangements of human and nonhuman agencies which are associated with each other). These reconfigurations entail the severance of some associations among procedural and material elements of the agencements and the formation of new associations, in order to produce cultivation practices that are accurately described by the GVC’s standards and protocols. Based on ethnography of two farmers in Uttarakhand, North India, we find that the same standards were enacted differently on the two farmers’ fields, producing variable degrees of (selective) compliance with the ‘official’ GVC standards. We argue that the disjuncture between the ‘official’ scripts of the standards and actual cultivation practices must be nurtured to allow farmers’ agencements to align their practices with local sociotechnical relations and farm ecology. Furthermore, we find that compliance and disjuncture were facilitated by many practices and associations that were officially ungoverned by the GVC

Interference of five problematic weed species with rice growth and yield

Five weed species namely, Cyperus rotundus L., Cyperus difformis L., Echinochloa colonum (L.) Link., Paspalum paspaloides (Mich.) Scribner, and Marsilea minuta L. were selected for the assessment of their level of competition with two commonly grown rice varieties viz. Basmati-385 and Super Basmati. Root and shoot growth as well as grain yield, in both rice cultivars, were adversely affected due to the weed competition in the field experiments. In general, Super Basmati was found to be comparatively more tolerant to weed infestation than Basmati-385. There were 6 to 40% and 21 to 56% reduction in grain yield of Super Basmati and Basmati-385, respectively, due to different weed species. E. colonum was found to be the most damaging weed which resulted in the highest grain yield losses of 56 and 42% in Basmati-385 and Super Basmati, respectively. P. paspaloides was found to be the second most damaging weed species which caused 47% yield losses in Basmati-385. It was concluded from the study that E. colonum was the most competitive weed. It resulted in the highest yield losses in rice especially in var. Basmati-385.Keywords: Rice, weeds, yield losses

Experimental compaction of anisotropic granular media

We report on experiments to measure the temporal and spatial evolution of packing arrangements of anisotropic and weakly confined granular material, using high-resolution $\gamma$-ray adsorption. In these experiments, the particle configurations start from an initially disordered, low-packing-fraction state and under vertical solicitations evolve to a dense state. We find that the packing fraction evolution is slowed by the grain anisotropy but, as for spherically shaped grains, can be well fitted by a stretched exponential. For a given type of grains, the characteristic times of relaxation and of convection are found to be of the same order of magnitude. On the contrary compaction mechanisms in the media strongly depend on the grain anisotropy.Comment: to appear in the european physical journal E (EPJE

Estimates of combining ability and standard heterosis for grain yield and various agromorphological traits in rice (Oryza sativa L.)

A study was conducted for estimating combining ability and standard heterosis for grain yield and various agromorphological traits involving 10 parents and their 45 F1s (half diallel) during 2012-13 and 2013-14. The results of present investigation revealed that additive gene action played a predominant role in the inheritance of most of the traits under study. On the basis of general combining ability (GCA) effects and specific combining ability (SCA) effects, three parents (Vallabh Basmati 21, Pusa Basmati 1, CSR 13) and three crosses (Vallabh Basmati 21 x Pusa 1121, Pusa 1121 x CSR 13 and Pusa Basmati 1 x CSR 13) were found good general and specific combiners. The best combinations mostly involved good x good and good x poor parental GCA effects suggesting that there is addi-tive x additive and additive x dominance type of gene action for yield and other component traits. The cross showing additive gene action can be improved by pedigree breeding and selection can be postponed to later generations. The most appropriate breeding method for the exploitation of non additive gene action will be heterosis breeding. The six best cross combinations (Vallabh Basmati 21 x CSR 30, CSR 30 x CSR 13, Vallabh Basmati 21 x CSR 13, CSR 30 x Pusa basmati 1, Pusa basmati 1 x CSR 13 and Vallabh Basmati 21 x Pusa basmati 1) had significant standard heterosis for grain yield and other component traits. The crosses which showed significant standard heter-osis is highly suitable for commercial exploitation of heterosis in rice crop