Farmers in Punjab and Haryana are increasing the sowing of the premium variety of rice after floods washed away the regular varieties.
Punjab and Haryana will increase planting of basmati rice as floods have washed away the recently sown regular grades, farmers and trade officials said today.
Basmati rice can be planted late in the year, but yields are much lower than regular grades.
Farmers also have to face fluctuating market prices for basmati, unlike common rice grades that official agencies buy at fixed, attractive rates.
"Paddy output will certainly drop this year. However, farmers have started sowing basmati varieties now and its acreage will surely increase," BS Duggal, additional director with the state farm department, told Reuters.
Floods in two districts of Haryana and parts of Punjab after heavy rains in early July had swamped paddy fields in the region, though rainfall in most parts of India has been below normal this year.
The weather office last week said monsoon rains, which irrigate 60% of the country's farms, were 24% below normal till the second week of July.
Duggal said the government was advising farmers to sow basmati grades in nurseries and transplant them in early August.
"Earlier, we were expecting around 50% of the total area under rice to be covered by basmati this year in Haryana. But now basmati acreage is bound to rise beyond 65% of total area under rice," Duggal clarified.
Farmers in the two states said they have already started cultivating basmati rice varieties.
"Most of the rice crop was damaged in the floods. Now with no time left to sow the normal paddy varieties, I'm planting basmati in my fields," said Tek Chand Sonthi, a farmer in the Kurukshetra region of Haryana.
Vijay Setia, president of the All-India Rice Exporters Association, said he expected a rise in basmati acreage.
In neighbouring Punjab, where only small parts are flooded, basmati's share in rice cultivation is expected to rise to 28% from an estimated 25% earlier, said PS Rangi, marketing consultant of the Punjab State Farmers Commission.
In 2009, basmati acreage in Haryana was around 550,000 hectares out of 1.2 million hectares of total rice cultivation, while in Punjab, it stood at 511,000 hectares of the 2.82 million hectares.
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