Jagat Singh Sandhu, a sixty something farmer in Masani village near Sangrur in Punjab, is planning to plant the new basmati variety, Pusa 1509, on at least 10 acres of his 11-acre farm, provided he gets sufficient seeds.

Till last year, Sandhu used to grow a mix of the popular basmati variety Pusa 1121 and Permal, the non-basmati rice.

“The rates were good last year and I have heard that the new variety gives more yield and consumes less water,” Sandhu said.

Like Sandhu, Jitendra, another farmer near Panipat in Haryana, is planning to try out the new basmati variety.

Acreage may rise

As farmers, lured by higher returns, are eager to grow more of the 1509 variety, experts predict that the acreage under basmati would see a quantum leap this year.

Also the increased acceptance of 1509 may boost basmati output significantly. The yield of 1509 is in the range of 2.2-2.5 tonnes an acre, while for the 1121 variety, it is 1.8-2 tonnes.

“There will be at least three-fold increase in basmati output this year,” Raj Sood, a trader in Punjab’s Khanna, Asia’s largest grain market, told Business Line.

According to the All-India Rice Exporters Association, basmati acreage in 2013-14 increased by some six per cent to around 19 lakh hectares, with almost eight lakh hectares planted in Punjab alone.

Vijay Setia, Director at Chaman Lal Setia Exports Ltd, expects acreage under the farmer-friendly 1509 variety to increase as farmers are likely to shift from 1121 and non-basmati varieties, and even from sugarcane.

Prices soar

Basmati paddy prices shot up by 27 per cent from ₹3,300-3,400 a quintal at the beginning of the last season in October to around ₹4,200 by December-January, riding on robust overseas demand for the aromatic rice.

India’s basmati exports in the just ended financial year exceeded a record 4.02 million tonnes in volumes and $4.5 billion in value.

Basmati paddy prices are currently ruling steady around ₹4,000 a quintal.

“Farmers have seen the benefit of the price rise and would obviously want to grow more,” Setia said. Of the eight lakh hectares under basmati in Punjab, at least 70-80 per cent will be under the high-yielding varieties.

Shift in pattern

AK Singh, principal rice breeder at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, who developed the 1509 variety, said the new strain would replace at least 60 per cent of the area under the popular Pusa 1121.

“We also expect it (1509) to replace non-basmati varieties, such as Permal,” Singh said, adding that availability of the 1509 seeds should not be a problem as IARI has signed memorandum of understanding with some 15 companies to multiply the seeds.

“Over the next three years, our effort is to make 1509 resistant to blight and brown plant hoppers,” Singh said.

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