ISLAMABAD, May 22: The government remains silent over the continuous misusing of name of Pakistan’s indigenous Basmati rice varieties by the Indian farmers and registering them with their own brand names.
Sources told Dawn on Monday that the All India Rice Exporters Association (AIREA) had approached the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation in New Delhi for necessary notification to register Pakistan’s super Basmati as new variety ‘Shabnam’ under the Seeds Act, 1966.
After misusing the name of Pakistani Basmati varieties, the sources said, India now wanted Pakistan to negotiate sharing geographical indications (GIs) for Basmati rice with them.
When contacted, ministry of food, agriculture and livestock secretary Syed Ismail Qureshi told Dawn that the ministry was examining the legal side of the issue. “Then we will be in a position to work out our course of action,” he added.
Elaborating further, the sources said that in 1998, two brothers, Kuldip Singh and Surinder Singh, came to Pakistan from India on pilgrimage to the Sikh holy places. On the way back, they took two kg of super Basmati seed with them, and this variety started multiplication in India. In 2003, scientists of the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, distributed super Basmati seeds in a ‘kissan mela’ as Shabnam variety. By the year 2005, they had a sizable crop of super Basmati providing a huge quantity of over 30,000 tons seeds, which they expect will increase by 10 times in 2006.
In the September 1965 war, the Indians entered the Sialkot area to find standing crops of Basmati getting ready for harvest. “This was their first loot of our germplasm in Basmati-370 and Kernal Basmati seed paddy that became known under various names in India, such as Taraori, Basmati-386, HBC-19, Basmati-217, etc,” the sources added.
In 1985, India had notified growing Basmati-385 of Pakistan. “But unfortunately, Pakistan then did not object to this open theft,” the sources said.
Zahid Khwaja, an expert on Basmati rice, told Dawn from Lahore that India had failed to produce any new Basmati variety. “The nearest their research could reach was Pusa, a non-Basmati rice that is photoperiod insensitive and without any Basmati aroma and commonly known in India as duplicate Basmati or mixing material,” he added.
Mr Khwaja said historically and as per original methods all Pakistan Basmati rice was photoperiod sensitive. “If Basmati does not need to be photoperiod sensitive, as per the Indian Pusa, then it can be grown even in Texas, Australia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Hyderabad Decca or even Rajasthan,” he added.
The expert said Basmati could only be grown in a specific area of Pakistan and some border areas of India adjoining Pakistan. “It is clear that Indian research on Basmati has been a complete failure. That is why India continues misusing the name Pakistan’s Basmati varieties.”