NEW DELHI (Commoditiescontrol) – Punjab Basmati Rice Millers Association (PBRMA) has urged the government to ban Basmati rice cultivation in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
The rice millers association has written a letter to the state government and the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), the statutory body responsible for export promotion and development of certain scheduled products, demanding Geographical Indication (GI) for Basmati rice grown in Punjab, Haryana and some other authorized states and take action against non-authorized states for using the name of Basmati.
Ashish Kathuria, General Secretary and Spokesperson, PBRMA, stressed that Basmati rice or paddy is losing its existence with rise in its cultivation in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
He cited the order of the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) in which the IPAB had asked Chennai-based Geographical Indications Registry (GIR) to issue a GI tag for basmati rice.
As per the order, GI tag is to be issued to Basmati rice grown in the Indo-Gangetic Plains covering the states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Western UP and two districts of Jammu and Kathuria.
According to Ashish, “It was directed not to use the trade mark of Basmati in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar but ignoring the direction rice variety grown in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan is named as variety of Basmati.”
Production of Basmati rice is increasing in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh year after year as 5.5 lakh tonnes of basmati rice was grown in Rajasthan in last kharif season and the farmers of the state are taking more interested to increase the area under basmati which may be two fold and more or less, same situation is observed in Madhya Pradesh, hence, farmers of Punjab and Haryana suffer, he added.
Coarse paddy is not procured at MSP in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan as it happens in Punjab and Haryana, hence, farmers in both states sell 1121 variety of paddy at Rs. 1,500-1,600/100kg while it causes losses to the farmers of Haryana and Punjab, pointed out Ashish Kathuria.
“If Basmati farming is not prohibited in the unauthorized states, the farmers of Punjab and Haryana who cultivating basmati rice this year will suffer,” said PBRMA Spokesperson.
According to him, 10 giant Iranian companies are going to cultivate paddy in a big area of eight lakh hectares in African countries this year which may discourage India’s rice exports in future.
The farmers of Punjab and Haryana are already in distress due to diminish demand for rice in overseas market, apart from this, increasing trend of basmati cultivation in unauthorized states may compel them to sell their produce at throw away prices, the similar situation as seen last year.
Geographical Indication (GI) Tag: It identifies a good or commodity as originating in the territory of a member or a region or a locality in that territory where given quality, reputation or characteristics of the commodity is essentially attributable to its geographic origin under the Article of 22(1) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement on trade related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).
Since, India is a member of WTO, GI goods (Registrations and Protection) Act, 1999 has come into force with effect from September 2003.
Darjeeling tea, Mysore Silk and some other Indian products have been recognized with GI Tag.
(By Commoditiescontrol Bureau; +91-22-40015533)
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