Basmati Rices: Genetics, Breeding and Trade

Basmati rices, indigenous to the Indian sub-continent and endowed with unique quality traits are palatal delights of the rice connoisseurs world over. These virtues of Basmati rices command them premium price in domestic and international markets. Over the last several decades many studies have been carried out with the aim of understanding the extent of diversity of this speciality rice as well as genetics and breeding behavior of the key traits that distinguish Basmati from all other rices. In an attempt to obtain higher yield and to introduce resistance to pests and diseases without compromising on their quality, various breeding strategies which include recombination, mutation, hybrid and molecular breeding approaches have been pursued. In Basmati rice trade, patent and trademark claims by countries and organizations outside the natural habitat of Basmati rice, and issues relating to adulteration of Basmati rice with look-alike long grain non-Basmati grains by greedy traders have emerged as serious issues, which were required to be countered for protecting the burgeoning trade and the livelihood of poor farmers in the Himalayan foothills, the home of Basmati. Development and extensive commercial cultivation of high yielding Basmati varieties and hybrids, which fall short of the quality features of traditional Basmati varieties, since mid 90s have necessitated development of high throughput DNA marker assay for distinguishing the traditional Basmati varieties from the evolved or cross-bred Basmati varieties as well as from the look-alike non-Basmati varieties in order to ensure fair price for the farmers and to quantify admixtures in export consignments. In this review, we have made an attempt to highlight the efforts that have gone into study, improve and protect the Basmati.