Did basmati kill basmati?

It has been described as the 'best rice in the world' by Taste Atlas, more evocatively as 'karza faad' (debt-breaker) by farmers, and even found a place in the tragic love story of Heer Ranjha written by famous Punjabi poet Waris Shah in the 18th century. Today, this aromatic variety is used to whip up everything from biryanis and kheers to foreign dishes like sushi. It has also sparked a cross-border row, with Pakistan looking to benefit from the 50% duty imposed by the Trump administration on Indian exports.

Yet, a less-known fact about the much-feted basmati rice is that it is also a silent killer. The victim: traditional varieties of basmati and non-basmati rice that were once grown and consumed across India but have now nearly vanished from farms and dining tables.

Agrarian scientist Debal Deb, who has been working on rice seed conservation for the last two decades, estimates that 60-80% of the rice bought off the shelf is not the variety claimed on the packet. "The biggest challenge today is that farmers use cross-pollination and don't maintain genetic purity," says the Odisha-bases researcher.

But before villainising the hybrids, it's important to understand the context in which they came about. India's desperate need for self-sufficiency in food grains led to agricultural research scientists creating sturdier grains of rice like the Pusa Basmati (PB) 1121 and PB 1509 over the years. These varieties could cope with the constant onslaught of pests and diseases such as bacterial blight and responded well to chemical fertilisers. This not only fed more mouths, it also meant that farmers, even those with small landholdings, gained from higher yield and fewer losses. Soon, large swathes of land in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh shifted to these hybrid varieties. This shift helped India become the largest producer of basmati rice, supplying 65% of global demand, with Pakistan accounting for most of the rest.

However, this has come at a cost of traditional varieties. Across India, rice seed varieties have come down from 1,00,000 in the 1970s to less than 6,000 - a loss of 93%.Traditional strains such as Veliyan rice in Kerala, which is drought-resistant, or Jengoni in Assam, known for its medicinal qualities, are rarely cultivated.

Umendra Dutt, founder of the Kheti Virasat Mission that works in conserving indigenous seeds and traditional methods of cultivation in Punjab and Haryana, says that the region had lost all its paddy varieties. "When we started the mission in 2005, we had to get seeds from other parts of the country to bring traditional varieties back to our farms," he says. Over the past two decades, Punjab's Malwa region, where this initiative is based, has seen a surge of cancer cases that studies have linked to excessive and inappropriate use of pesticides and chemical fertilisers.

"It was only after we found out how much damage had been done that we encouraged farmers to adopt organic methods and switch to traditional crops," Dutt says. The Mission conserves and distributes 10-12 varieties of rice.

Deb, also called the Seed Warrior, says while not all the loss is directly due to basmati, the dominance of basmati in its traditional growing regions has accelerated the decline of other varieties. "Farmers behave like businessmen who are seeking profits. They have no interest in conserving," he says.

At Basudha, a 1.7-acre farm in Odisha's Rayagada district, Deb has been working towards conservation of 1,492 rice landraces (traditional strains) collected from farmers in India and abroad, including Sri Lanka, Thailand, Korea, Italy and the US. Beyond seed preservation, he has built awareness around genetic purity and the importance of crop diversity. The Vrihi Seed Exchange Network he started now connects over 8,000 farmers in 12 states who cultivate and exchange seeds among themselves. Vrihi also documents varieties rich in vitamin B complex, essential omega-3 fatty acids and those that can withstand drought, flood, salinity, or resist pests and diseases.

In Assam's Jorhat, Mahan Chandra Borah, who has been working on saving seeds for the last two decades, criticises the profit-driven approach. "This monoculture is destroying our living heritage. Conserving these seeds is necessary for sustainable food security in the future," he says. Borah recalls how his village, Meleng Kathgaon, would cultivate 10-12 varieties of rice when he was a child. "The next village grew other varieties which were different from ours and we would exchange seeds. But now the landraces are down to a handful," he says. He conserves over 500 varieties through the Annapurna Seed Library.

He highlights the benefits of conservation: farmers growing traditional varieties regain control over food production and reduce dependence on costly commercial seeds. Yet, he warns that the impact of individual farmers is limited. "There is no govt initiative for conservation. All govt-run research institutes are focused on genetic engineering," he says.