BASMATI EXPORT DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION

Basmati Export Development Foundation (BEDF) has been founded by Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) and is a society registered under Societies Registration Act, 1860. State Government of UP has provided about 10 acres of land at long-term lease for 70 years to APEDA to be used for activities of BEDF.

A state of the Art laboratory and demonstration cum training (D&T) farm have been set up at this land in the campus of SVP University of Agriculture and Technology Modipurram, UP. The activities undertaken at these facilities include :

I. QUALITY ASSURANCE IN EXPORT

1. DNA Fingerprinting for varietal identification of Basmati Rice;
2. Testing on the basis of Physical Quality Characteristics;
3. Testing of residues of pesticides and heavy metals samples of Basmati rice at concession rate
4. Generation of data on Pesticide Residue by testing of samples drawn from farmers fields on sample basis,

II. AUTHORISED CENTRE FOR SAMPLES DRAWN BY CUSTOMS

Vide policy circular No 28 / 2009-14 dated March 31, 2010 DGFT has designated BEDF, Modipuram as an authorized centre for testing of samples of Basmati rice for variety identification. Accordingly, Customs draw samples for variety identification and send these samples for analysis to BEDF, Modipuram, in addition to AGMARK testing centres.

III. PRODUCTION OF BASMATI BREEDER / FOUNDATION SEED

1. At D&T farm breeder seed production of specified is undertaken as per allocation by Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, GOI.
2. Multiplication of foundation seed at Farmers Land for further sale in the next Kharif season. This leads to capacity building of farmers for seed production and become part of seed supply chain in the trade.

IV. FARMERS AWARENESS AND CAPACITY BUILDING

1. Demonstration and Training for improved package of practices for export oriented cultivation of Basmati paddy.
2. About 15 workshops are organized in Kharif season every year in the seven Basmati producing states viz., J&K, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi and Western UP for farmers and Extension officers of the Department of Agriculture of respective states. These workshops are organized with technical/ faculty support from State Agriculture University and the Zonal Centres of ICAR.

V. IMPLEMENTATION OF BASMATI REGISTRATION AS GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATION (GI) PRODUCT

1. APEDA was mandated; vide APEDA (Amendment) Act, 2009 dated March 6, 2009, for Registration and Protection of the Intellectual Property Right in respect of special products in India or outside India. Second Schedule has been added to the APEDA Act containing the names of such products for which APEDA has been mandated to take these measures. As of now, the Second Schedule has only one entry i.e. "Basmati Rice".

2. APEDA has been issued certificate of registration of Basmati Rice as a GI product on February 15, 2016 by GI Registry, Chennai.

3. Towards implementation of this mandate, APEDA has developed a software based system for monitoring and bringing in traceability for authenticity in production and supply of Basmati Rice both in domestic and export markets. Software has been launched in seven Basmati producing state from Kharif 2017. Detailed field activities of registration of farmers, collection of random samples from mills and trade and their testing at Modipurram lab is to be coordinated by BEDF.

VI. WORKING WITH CDFD, HYDERABAD FOR EXTENSION OF DNA TESTING PROTOCOL FOR INCLUSION OF NEW NOTIFIED VARIETIES OF BASMATI RICE

1. Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD), Hyderabad under the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India has developed a protocol for DNA Fingerprinting for varietal identification of Basmati rice. CDFD is pursuing with Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) for publication of Indian Standard on method for DNA fingerprinting for varietal identification of Basmati Rice. The document submitted by CDFD was based on earlier work and the method was capable of identification of 11 Basmati varieties.

2. Meantime, many new varieties of Basmati were notified by GOI under the Seeds Act, 1966. Therefore, APEDA had requested CDFD last year to expand the method to cover all notified varieties which were 24 at that time. BIS has agreed to hold back the publication and requested CDFD to submit the revised method details early. BEDF scientists are technically assisting in this project.

VII . QUALITY ANALYSIS FOR NATIONAL BASMATI TRIALS

Basmati trials, quality analysis is being done at BEDF in addition to Indian Institute for Rice Research (IIRR), Hyderabad, National Rice Research Institute (NRRI), Cuttack and Indian Agriculture Research Institute( IARI), New Delhi .

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