Plans are afoot in India to set up a Basmati development board on the lines of various commodities boards that function under the Commerce Ministry.
The move comes on the heels of two rice exporter associations urging Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Affairs and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah to set up a dedicated statutory Basmati rice board and separate it from the control of the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA).
A meeting, organised by a Rashtriya Swamyamsevak Sangh (RSS) affiliated Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS), last week discussed the issue threadbare. Associations such as the All India Rice Exporters Association (AIREA) and Punjab Rice Millers Exporters Association (PRMEA), besides farmer representatives, experts and industry experts, took part in the meeting.
Plea to Piyush Goyal
Sources in the know of the meeting said after a day-long deliberation, BKS has urged Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal to set up a separate Basmati development board. The Prime Minister’s Office has reportedly been approached with the same request.
Sources said the meeting was convened because the economic benefits of Basmati rice have not properly reached farmers.
Farmers’ incomes are falling as prices have stagnated and the premium for basmati has eroded despite rising input costs. This is despite basmati enjoying Geographical Indication (GI) protection. The sources attributed this to weak institutional mechanisms.
Over the past few seasons, basmati paddy prices have ranged between ₹2,500 and ₹3,700 a quintal, short of expectations of receiving above ₹4,000.
Alarming decline
After adjusting for inflation, real prices received by farmers have declined significantly, making basmati cultivation only marginally more profitable than non-basmati varieties.
“This decline is alarming because basmati is supposed to be a niche, high-value product. The collapse in premiums directly impacts farmer income, making cultivation financially less attractive,” one of the sources said.
Cultivation costs have also increased sharply. Fertiliser prices have increased 2-3 times in the past decade, and labour wages, fuel and pesticide costs have all surged. Costs have also gone up due to stricter residue norms and compliance norms for export quality.
Farmers are struggling with seed quality and reliability, too. They rely on public and private suppliers, but seeds are sometimes mixed or unreliable, raising questions over the authenticity of basmati varieties. “Farmers invest in seeds hoping to get a premium but end up producing grain that fails to meet export standards or is not accepted as genuine basmati,” the sources said.
The absence of a robust seed certification and monitoring mechanism increases risk for farmers while exporters continue to purchase in the mandi.
Fee for RCAC
Currently, APEDA handles basmati exports. In their letter to the Prime Minister and Shah, the rice export associations said there was no focus on Basmati rice, as APEDA had many other commodities to attend to.
Stakeholders at the meeting expressed the same view. Though APEDA has the Basmati Export Development Board (BEDF) functioning under its supervision, the stakeholders expressed unhappiness over its performance.
They pointed out that APEDA collects ₹70 a tonne as a registration-cum-allocation certificate (RCAC) fee for BEDF. This helps APEDA collect ₹45.5 crore, but it takes out 50 per cent of it for its services. On the other hand, the Budget allocation for APEDA is ₹80 crore, and it deploys only a couple of officers.
“The amount APEDA takes from BEDF is 30 per cent of the total Budget allocation for it,” another source said.
The sources said the participants at the meeting were told that a Basmati Board, if formed, will be self-sufficient in its spending and will be able to utilise the fund better.
Published on May 19, 2026