Pusa 1121: Fit for Consumption
Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) declared PUSA 1121 variety to be free from any presence of heavy metals and assured safe for human consumption on 14th October, 2009. This was followed by clean chit given to PUSA 1121 variety by the Iran’s Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MHME) which was very important as projected demand of this variety in Iran is about two million tones out of total 2.5 million basmati exported by India all over the world.
All these were lead by a report released by an Iranian Press TV channel, which said that Pusa 1121 is contaminated with traces of heavy metals like arsenic, cadmium and lead above the permitted level which makes it unsafe for human consumption. The import of Basmati rice from India was detained in the ports of Iran as Iran’s Standard Institute of Industrial Research laboratory certified that Pusa 1121 does contain harmful chemicals. This caused a relative decline in prices and demand of Pusa 1121 and caused tensions among the farmers as well as the exporters.
Pusa 1121 is the costliest variety of Indian basmati, selling at approximately $1350-1400/ton and have huge demand in Iran with 50% growth in annual demand. The chief reasons for its growing demand in Iran is high price of Iranian local rice which sells at about Rs.200-400 / Kgs. Also it is worth mentioning that Punjab and Haryana had a record increase in its area under basmati cultivation. Also the centre’s decision to lower down the minimum export price (MEP) for basmati have fuelled the exporters to indulge in global competitive market for basmati. So a dispute of this sort bought a considerable amount of worries for the farmers and exporters.
However the clean chit given to Pusa 1121 by the regulatory bodies from India as well as Iran have controlled the situation and thus an expected rise in demand in Iran along with Saudi Arabia and other Western countries is being forecasted. It comes as major relief for farmers as these kind of paddy yields higher prices along with higher output.
