Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), Ministry of Trade and Industry has launched Basmati crop survey to estimate acreage, assess crop health and expected yield of aromatic and long grain rice in 2022-2023 kharif crop using climatic conditions. revenue modeling. The Basmati crop survey is being conducted after two years as it could not be held in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid-19 restrictions. Basmati rice is an agricultural product with a registered geographical indication (GI) and the highest premium in the global market.
Cultivation of Basmati rice is an Indian tradition and it is a collective responsibility to maintain this tradition as there is a huge demand for Basmati rice in the global market. Farmers have also been invited to register on basmati.net through the Ministry of Agriculture. The survey is being conducted under the Basmati Export Development Foundation (BEDF), a branch of APEDA. The final survey report is due to be completed by December this year.
As per the survey model, both field and satellite imagery survey is conducted on a sample group of farmers selected at district level in seven Basmati producing states, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Western Uttar Pradesh (30 districts) and three districts in Jammu and Kashmir. GPS points are recorded to determine the level of accuracy and each farmer is photographed while participating in the survey. Basmati rice exports rose 25.54 percent to $1.15 billion in April-June 2022-23 compared to $922 million in the corresponding months of the last fiscal. APEDA through BEDF is helping state governments in promoting Basmati rice cultivation. Through various awareness programs organized by APEDA and BEDF, farmers are informed about the use of certified seeds, good agricultural practices and judicious use of pesticides to meet international standards.
As part of the initiatives, BEDF in collaboration with Rice Exporters Associations of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh along with respective State Agricultural Universities and State Agriculture Departments organized 75 awareness and training programs to encourage farmers to grow high quality Basmati rice in seven states. BEDF is also involved as a technical partner for various FPOs, exporters associations etc. in key growing states.
India has exported Basmati worth nearly USD 12 billion in the last three years. Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, United Arab Emirates, United States of America, Kuwait, United Kingdom, Qatar and Oman account for nearly 80 percent of the total aromatic long grain rice shipments from India in 2021-22. Basmati rice is one of the largest agricultural products for export from India. In 2020–21, India exported 4.63 million MT of Basmati rice valued at USD 4.02 billion. In the last 10 years, the export of Basmati rice has more than doubled as in 2009-10 the export of Basmati rice was registered at 2.17 million MT.
