Basmati rice
Topic: Major Crops of India: Distribution and Conditions · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Basmati is a long-grain, sweet-smelling rice. It got a Geographical Indication (GI) in 2016. A GI is a label that says a product's quality or fame comes from a particular place. The basmati GI covers parts of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, western Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. All these areas lie in or near the Indo-Gangetic plains. The GI protects the name, so rice grown in other places cannot be sold as Indian basmati. Pakistan contests India's GI claim in the European Union (verify current).
Example
Basmati grown on the irrigated plains of Punjab and Haryana is a well-known export rice. It sells for a much higher price than ordinary rice.
Don't confuse with
- Ordinary rice: this is a kharif staple grown across India, from Punjab to the eastern deltas. Basmati is a special variety, and its GI covers only certain north-western areas.